Starbucks Sues Supplier Over Spoiled Sandwiches

by William White | July 17, 2013 3:46 pm

Starbucks SBUX[1]Starbucks (SBUX[2]) recently filed a $5 million lawsuit[3] against its ham supplier, Wellshire Farms.

In 2008 Starbucks began making sandwiches with what the company thought was Wellshire’s ham, but the meat instead came from Hahn’s of Westminster. Two year later Starbucks started receiving complaints that the ham used in its sandwiches was spoiled. The company told stores to throw out all warm breakfast sandwiches that used the ham, reports Seattle PI.

“Safety is Starbucks number one priority,” Zak Hutson, a Starbucks spokesman, told Seattle PI. “The products were withdrawn out of an abundance of caution in 2010, and we are confident that our customers were not harmed by them.”

Starbucks considered dropping its contract with Wellshire, but was persuaded by Wellshire’s president to continue trading with the company. After the third string of complaints about its ham sandwiches Starbucks learned the true source of the ham and ordered lab tests on meat samples. Those test showed that the ham was contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria. Starbucks claims it lost $4.8 million due to the tainted ham, reports Seattle PI.

Starbucks is on the other side of a lawsuit[4] filed by a group of deaf individuals, who claim they were abused by its employees.

Endnotes:

  1. [Image]: https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Starbucks185.jpg
  2. SBUX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SBUX
  3. filed a $5 million lawsuit: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Starbucks-sues-over-stomach-turning-sandwiches-4662409.php
  4. is on the other side of a lawsuit: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/deaf-customers-sue-starbucks-over-mocking/

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/starbucks-sues-supplier-over-spoiled-sandwiches/