I’ve heard every ‘what’s in my food’ story — this one wins

"What's the worst thing you've ever found in your food?"

It is one of our go-to topics on New Jersey 101.5, and it never fails. Everybody has a story. Rubber bands. Twist ties. A hair that definitely was not supposed to be there. I have my own — a cockroach on a pizza, years ago, the kind of discovery that changes your relationship with a restaurant permanently. Yuck does not begin to cover it.

But dentures? I will be honest, when this story first crossed my desk, I figured it had to be exaggerated. Nobody's teeth end up in somebody else's sandwich. That is not a real category of food safety incident.

Except it is, and there is a lawsuit to prove it.

The sandwich in question

A Bayville man ordered a cheesesteak through Grubhub from the Jersey Mike's in Lacey Township back in April 2025. The sandwich arrived looking normal enough — sealed with scotch tape, according to the lawsuit — until the man got into it and found, in the words of the court filing, "foreign objects, specifically dentures, embedded within the sandwich."

Not near the sandwich. Not in the bag next to the sandwich. Embedded within it.

He brought the cheesesteak and the dentures back to the Jersey Mike's location, understandably looking for an explanation. The bag showed signs of tampering, according to a police report, which led officers to the Grubhub delivery driver.

Her first explanation was that the dentures belonged to her father, who she said had been eating at that same Jersey Mike's. Police were not convinced. Under further questioning, the driver changed her story, saying she had been eating her own lunch while making deliveries and accidentally left her dentures behind in the customers order.

Somewhere in Lacey Township, a Jersey Mike's employee is still holding a customer's dentures at a customer service counter, waiting for their owner to come collect them. That detail alone tells you this story is real.

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Associated Press

Who's getting sued

The lawsuit, filed on the customers behalf, names the driver, Grubhub, and Jersey Mike's, alleging tampering by the driver, negligent hiring and training by Grubhub, and a failure by Jersey Mike's to properly package and secure the food. The customers attorney did not mince words, calling the discovery of a foreign object from another person's mouth, embedded in food, both shocking and a legitimate contamination concern.

Grubhub, for its part, said it was troubled by the report and confirmed the driver in question is no longer contracted to make deliveries for the platform. That is corporate speak for she does not work for them anymore, which feels like the correct outcome here.

A public service reminder

I do not know how you top this one on the "what did you find in your food" list. A rubber band is an accident. A hair happens. A cockroach is a health code violation waiting to be reported. But somebody else's dentures, sealed inside your sandwich with scotch tape, is a category all its own.

If nothing else, this is a solid argument for checking your delivery order before you take the first bite. And maybe, just this once, a reason to actually read the online reviews before you order.