Woman to sue Campbell's over tooth in soup

A WOMAN who says she found a human tooth in a can of Campbell's soup is suing the US company.

Tina Keeney, of West Jordan, Utah, had just heated up a can of chicken noodle soup and given some of it to her 13-month-old son.

While she was cleaning up, she noticed the boy had a hard, white object in his hand.

"It's gross enough as it is to find something in your food anyway, but to have it be a human tooth that was in someone else's mouth is just sickening," Keeney said.

She called Campbell headquarters in New Jersey to complain. Keeney said the person she spoke to was polite, if a little sceptical, asking if the object could actually be a chicken bone.

"I said, 'I'm not a dentist, but it looks like a molar to me," she said.

Campbell's offered to cover the cost of the soup plus a little extra. They also wanted her to mail in the tooth.

Keeney went to a lawyer instead. Her lawyer Daniel Irvin has had the object tested by a pathologist, who confirmed it is indeed a human molar, likely from a 13-year-old mouth.

The expert noted the tooth, actually half a tooth, appeared to have been cut in some kind of manufacturing process, Irvin said.

Additional tests ruled out that the tooth belonged to anyone in the Keeney family, including her older daughters. The law suit asks for unspecified damages on behalf of Keeney and her son.

"Here's a woman who can't eat soup, her family can't eat soup. And to be honest with you, I haven't eaten soup since this happened," Irvin said.

A spokesman for Campbell Soup Company said that it has not been allowed to examine the object Keeney says she found in the soup.

"I can't comment about pending litigation," spokesman John Faulkner said.