A customer from Lusaka’s Chelstone Obama area, Thelma Simachembele, has sued Mika Meats Limited demanding US$25,000 in damages for negligence and K10,000 in special damages after allegedly finding a green housefly embedded in a beef sausage she purchased on 6th February 2025.
The incident is said to have led to her hospitalization a day later at the University Teaching Hospital -UTH- with severe gastroenteritis, vomiting, intense stomach pain and fever.
According to a statement of claim filed before the Lusaka High Court by her lawyers, Ms. Simachembele was at all material times a customer of Mika Meats Limited at its Chelstone Obama outlet in Lusaka and states that the beef sausage was bought in the ordinary course of business and consumed in the expectation that it was fit for human consumption.
She however, submits that the presence of a housefly in the sausage exposed her to harmful contaminants, resulting in her sudden illness and subsequent admission to hospital on 7th February 2025 and contends that Mika Meats Limited owed her a duty of care to ensure that food products sold to customers are safe and hygienically prepared.
Ms. Simachembele says the incident breached the duty of care through negligence in food handling and storage as confirmed by the food laboratory test by Lusaka City Council on 14th February that the sausage was embedded with a housefly.
The special damages being sought are said to relate to costs incurred as a result of the illness and treatment. Mika Meats Limited is yet to file its response to the claim.
-Phoenix FM
