A Salt Lake couple is suing Smith's Food & Drug Centers, charging the grocery chain sold them a two-pound block of cheese that contained a latex or rubber glove that made them physically and emotionally sick after they ate some of the cheese.
In the suit filed Friday in 3rd District Court, Victor and Jennifer Ludlow are asking for $100,000 in damages or whatever sum a jury considers a reasonable amount for "extreme physical pain and mental suffering and anguish."They also are suing four unidentified manufacturers and packagers of the medium cheddar type of cheese the lawsuit said was sold under Smith's private brand label.
Smith's spokeswoman Marsha Gilford said company officials are not aware of details of the suit so she could not comment about the case.
"I do want to say that our cheese is manufactured for us by a nationally renowned company and that we require of all our vendors providing Smith's products the very highest standards of quality production," Gilford said.
"We feel confident they do deliver that," Gilford said.
The Ludlows bought the cheese on June 13 from the Smith's store at 3171 E. 3300 South and they believed it was "wholesome and fit for human consumption," the suit said.
However, the suit said the cheese was "unreasonably dangerous to the consumer" because it contained a rubber or latex glove. The Ludlows became seriously ill after eating some of the cheese, the suit said.
The lawsuit contends that the manufacturers and packagers were negligent in allowing the glove to get into the cheese and that Smith's has a duty to its customers to "exercise due care" to ensure that its products are wholesome.
A law commonly referred to as the Utah Wholesome Food Act prohibits making or selling adulterated food in Utah, the suit said.
There is an implied warranty that food sold here is wholesome and fit for human consumption, the suit said.
This Victor Ludlow is not the same Victor L. Ludlow who is a well-known scholar and professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.