Panera Bread Sued By Peanut Butter Allergy Customer

Panera Bread Co PNRA was sued by the family of a 6-year old chilld with a peanut-allergic after the child got an anaphylactic reaction requiring hospitalization. The incident occured after an online order of grilled cheese contained peanut butter, according to a report on Boston Globe.

Globe said the family of the Natick girl filed suit last week in Middlesex Superior Court against Panera and a group of Panera franchises in New England.

According to the court complaint, the child's mother placed an online order for grilled cheese at the Wayland Panera on Jan.28.

The court complaint charges that the restaurant "engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices by adding peanut butter to the plaintiff's grilled cheese sandwich knowing that [she] has a life-threatening peanut allergy."

According to the report, John Russo, the father of the child, said a manager at the Natick cafe apologized to him profusely and blamed the incident on a "language" issue.

But Russo said that explanation was "no excuse" and didn't even strike him as plausible. Since the online order twice said "peanut allergy," he asked, "Did they just see ‘peanut' and not the ‘allergy' part?"

Globe said Mitchell Roberts, operating partner of PR Restaurants, said in a brief phone interview Thursday that he was not aware of the lawsuit, and he expressed surprise when told of the charges in the complaint.

"They're saying there were two different cases at two different restaurants of ours where someone ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and said they had a peanut allergy and they were served grilled cheese sandwiches with peanut butter in them?" Roberts asked. "That doesn't sound feasible."

At the time of writing, shares of Panera Bread were down 0.98 percent to $216.68.