The lawsuit seeks up to $250,000 in damages, alleging negligence, deceptive practices and food safety violations

NEED TO KNOW

• Texas woman Nohemi Castillo claims she nearly swallowed a cow’s tooth while eating a beef cheek taco she ordered at a Torchy’s Taco location in Austin, Texas.
• Castillo is suing the fast-casual chain, alleging negligence, deceptive practices and food safety violations
• Torchy’s Tacos issued a statement on Thursday, Oct. 15, saying it confirmed the item Castillo found was a cow tooth

A Texas woman is suing popular fast-casual restaurant Torchy’s Tacos after she says she found a cow’s tooth in her food.

Nohemi Castillo alleges in a complaint obtained by PEOPLE that she ordered takeout from one of the chain’s locations in Austin, Texas, on June 9. Castillo claims that she ordered the “Democrat” tacos, made with barbacoa, or braised beef cheek.

“One of the tacos had what appeared to be a cow tooth in it, which she almost swallowed,” the complaint alleges.

She also claims that she alerted the restaurant’s manager to her discovery, and claims that it is “unclear what if anything he did to remedy the problem within his food and under his control,” per the complaint.

In the complaint, Castillo claims she was “grossed out and sickened,” leading her to visit a doctor, where she received prescription medication.

Castillo seeks up to $250,000 in damages, alleging negligence and violations of the Texas Uniform Commercial Code and the Food Safety Modernization Act.

She alleges that Torchy’s Tacos and its parent company, Success Foods Management Group, LLC, engaged in an “unconscionable action or course of action” and “committed false, misleading or deceptive practices.”

The complaint claims that the restaurant “knew about various problems contained in their sold food products” before Castillo received her taco, and that “the food was not reasonably prepared, inspected, or delivered” before it was served to her.

The complaint also claims that that the chain violated the Food Safety Modernization Act’s requirement that restaurant owners and operators “evaluate the hazards that could affect food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by such facility, and to identify and implement preventive controls to significantly minimize or prevent the occurrence of such hazards.”

Steven Vasquez, Castillo’s attorney, said that his client reached out to him immediately following the incident, KVUE reported.

“Her reaction was disgust — ‘What is this?’” Vasquez said, adding that it was a “large” tooth.

Torchy’s Tacos said that it “take[s] all concerns about our food seriously” and “source[s] the highest quality food available” in a statement to KVUE.

“Our barbacoa comes from natural beef cheek that we source from a supplier,” the statement read. “Upon receiving the guest complaint, we conducted a thorough review and identified the item as a cow tooth.”

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“This can occasionally happen when processing the meat, though it is quite rare,” the statement continued, adding that the company is working with the supplier to prevent future occurrences.

PEOPLE reached out to representatives for Torchy’s Tacos for comment.

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