Worm-flavored Frito Lay, anyone?

Aside from potato chips, there could be other kinds of stuff inside your Frito Lay bag. Consider these: housefly, beetle, staple wire, safety pin, worm, crispy spider or what-have-you.

A confidential report prepared by Frito Lay Inc.’s manufacturing plant in Modesto, California compiled a total of 118 complaints from customers between Jan. 1, 1995 and March 19, 1999.

One customer had already eaten half of the bag’s contents before she discovered a white worm inside it.

Another customer found a “brownish colored pubic hair baked in a chip.”

A mother reported that her daughter choked on a nickel found inside the bag.

A woman cut her finger when she touched a metal rod while reaching for the chips. Another customer found an old bottle opener.

But one must be lucky: She found a silver bracelet made in Mexico.

In a document earlier submitted by Frito Lay to the US District Court in response to a lawsuit filed by a local consumer, the company stated that “A reasonably prudent person skilled in culinary art would prepare a bag of potato chips in compliance with the FDA standards.”

It also said that Frito Lay “produces its products under conditions and circumstances which conform to stringent health and safety requirements.”

The compilation report, labeled “confidential,” found its way to US District Court of Saipan as an attachment to a document filed by Edward P. Comfort, who had sued Frito Lay for alleged violation of the Consumer Protection Law.

Comfort said he had found a cockroach inside his potato chip bag.

On behalf of Comfort, lawyer Timothy Skinner filed a motion asking the court to dissolve its “protective order” which has authorized Frito Lay to label all documents “confidential.”

Skinner is also asking that Frito Lay be compelled to produce documents related to certain information sought by the plaintiff

Frito Lay had refused to disclose information about its production and packaging process, saying such move would reveal trade secrets which the company wishes to protect from business competitors.

Through the July 22 protective order, the court allowed Frito Lay to decide which documents would be categorized as “confidential.”

“Frito Lay has shown the court that it cannot be trusted with the responsibility of controlling the urge to stamp every document in this litigation ‘confidential’ under the court’s protective order,” the motion said. (MCM)