식품에 혼입된 이물에 대한 제조자의 과실 및 제품결함의 판단기준과 제조상 결함

In food cases sometimes present unique difficulties when it is unclear whether the ingredient that caused the plaintiff’s harm is an unanticipated adulteration or is an inherent aspect of the product. Mix rule, ‘foreign-natural’ doctrine, distinguished ‘natural substances’(such as a chincken bone served in a chicken pie) and ‘foreign substnaces’(such as an nail, wire, or glass). It is a fallacy to assume that all objects which were a natural part of the ingredients of the food at an early stage of preparation are characteristic of the finished product or are anticipated by the consumer of the finished product. We should abandon completely the Mix distinction between foreign and natural contaminants in food, and instead analyze the reasonable expectation of the consumer. Food processors and manufacturers are subject to ‘reasonable expectation’ test. Regardless whether substance in food product is natural to ingredient, liability will lie for injuries caused by the substance where the consumer of the product would not reasonably have expected to find the substance in the product, ‘foreign-natural’ doctrine is no longer applicable. We shoud decide on a case-by-case basis whether the consumer should have anticipated the object that caused the injury whether the injury-producing substance is ‘natural’ ‘foreign’ or not.