Michiana woman finds plastic in food, warns others

BUCHANAN, Mich. --- A Michiana grandmother said she found a piece of plastic inside of a bratwurst, that she was serving her five-year-old granddaughter, during dinner Thursday night and wants to remind others to take a close look at their food.

Sonya Griffin said she bought the sausage at Lowery’s Meat Market and Grocery Store in Buchanan. She said that she has never had a problem at the store.

“This is the first time that we’ve ever had something like this happen to us,” said Griffin.

Thursday night Griffin said she made dinner for her family, sausage being the main course.

“I cut the sausage up and put them in the oven to bake,” said Griffin.

She said she served everyone including her five-year-old granddaughter and just moments later her 12-year-old granddaughter, Lariah Griffin, came to her with the piece of sausage.

“My grandbaby said wow look at this, this was in kamiyah’s sausage,” Griffin said.

Lariah said that as her little cousin bit into the piece of sausage and felt the plastic on her tooth. She said she immediately stopped her little cousin from eating it.

“We didn’t know if anything else was in that sausage so we just had told my grandma about the whole sausage and she took it,” said Griffin’s granddaughter.

Sonya says she’s lucky that Lariah did what she did.

“If she could’ve got that in her mouth and swallowed it something very dangerous could’ve happened to her and it just made me very upset,” said Griffin.

She said she’s making calls to the Michigan Department of Agriculture to file a complaint to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“They should be thoroughly checking because it could happen to somebody else and it could’ve been a lot worse,“ said Griffin.

Michigan Department of Agriculture sent the following statement by email:

“An MDARD inspector has already been in contact with the complainant and the store. MDARD is working closely with both parties and has already scheduled an inspection. Ensuring the safety of the state's food supply is MDARD's priority.”

Griffin called Lowery’s Meat Market and Grocery Store today letting them know that this had happened to her granddaughter. ABC 57 News was present during that call and an employee apologized to Griffin and said if she brings the sausage back they will exchange it for another.

The store’s manager said Lowery’s has been open for the past 21 years and said they’ve had no issues.

Jennifer Holton, director of communications with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, said there have been other non-related complaints.