## Facts

- Grace Joyce Ford bought packaged ground beef from an Alpha Beta supermarket and cooked it at home.
- While tasting the cooked meat, Ford bit a hard object, damaged a tooth, and saw a small bone fragment.
- Alpha Beta received beef from Miller Meat Company in prepackaged rolls; Alpha Beta employees opened, visually inspected, re-ground, and extruded the meat through a grinder plate with holes about three to four millimeters in diameter.
- Ford sued Alpha Beta and Miller for strict products liability, breach of implied warranty, and negligence, alleging the bone fragment made the meat defective and unfit.
- At a bifurcated bench trial on liability, Ford presented only her own testimony and offered no evidence specifically directed at Miller; the court granted Miller’s motion for nonsuit.
- The trial court credited the grinding evidence and found the fragment must have been very small (no more than about one-eighth of an inch), rejected Ford’s claimed size, and entered judgment for both defendants on all theories.
- Ford appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a very small, naturally occurring bone fragment in ground beef sold at retail renders the product defective for strict products liability or breach of implied warranty.
2. Whether the supplier or retailer was negligent in allowing a very small bone fragment to remain in the ground beef.
3. Whether the trial court properly granted nonsuit for the supplier and entered defense judgment for the retailer after the bench trial.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgments for Miller and Alpha Beta.
- The court held the small bone fragment was a natural substance associated with meat and, under consumer expectations, did not make the ground beef defective or unfit for strict liability or implied warranty purposes.
- The court upheld the trial court’s no-negligence finding because the evidence showed reasonable inspection and grinding procedures and no proof of an unreasonable standard-of-care violation.
- The court found no error in the nonsuit for Miller because Ford presented no evidence of Miller-specific fault or defect beyond the incident itself, and defect/negligence could not be inferred from the presence of a tiny natural fragment.

## Legal Principles

- In food-injury cases, foreign substances (e.g., glass or metal) more readily support strict liability and implied warranty claims than natural substances (e.g., bones or cartilage), absent negligent preparation or handling.
- A product is not defective under the consumer-expectations test when an ordinary consumer would reasonably anticipate the risk at issue, particularly for raw food prepared by the consumer.
- Retail sellers and suppliers of raw meat are not required to guarantee the complete absence of minute, naturally occurring bone fragments in ground beef.
- Negligence requires proof of unreasonable conduct; reasonable inspection and grinding practices, without contrary evidence, support a finding of due care.
- Appellate review defers to trial-court factfinding and credibility determinations when supported by the record.

## Conclusion

The court held that a very small, naturally occurring bone fragment in ground beef purchased at a supermarket and prepared at home did not establish product defect or breach of implied warranty, and the evidence supported a finding of no negligence; the defense judgments, including nonsuit for the supplier, were affirmed.


Ford v. Miller Meat Co., 33 Cal. Rptr. 2d 899 (Cal. Ct. App. 1994)