[NEFARIOUS]

It's a food safety thing, although it's taken too literally sometimes. My parents owned restaurants so I can see what kind of liability is involved, but also taught me to never waste food on the home front (like I literally still picture a Zimbabwe kid starving every time I have to throw away food). The times that I did work at restaurants it did make me sick to have to throw perfectly good food away, but... Manager's orders. But being in sue-happy 'Murica, it's a lot less legal red tape to throw away food that has been touched/"contaminated" by the customer rather than to reach in, grab the sole mistaken piece of chicken and toss that away and get a new correct order and "cross-contaminate" the food somehow. Doesn't make sense to me either.

But the grocery store scenario? Now you're just asking for consequences; even a bum could find a good pro bono lawyer and claim he contracted E. Coli from tainted meat found on the property of the grocery store, where the store may still be liable since it happened on their property, despite the fact that it was pilfered from a dumpster... The same way that a thief stealing your belongings can sue you for injuring himself while robbing your home. 'MURICA!!!