Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

If you’ve ever had a food allergy, you know how serious it may be. It occurs when the body’s immune system reacts to certain proteins in food, and the reactions may vary from hives and lip swelling to even life-threatening symptoms that may involve fatal respiratory problems and shock known as anaphylaxis.

But this story posted on r/AITA which started with one roommate’s allergy to soy products has many more layers to it. “The next day after she moved in, she cooked breakfast for us. I was surprised,” the author recounted the morning with her new vegan roommate named Erin. But it turned out that unbeknownst to Erin, the author was “deathly allergic to a few things,” and soy products were one of them.

“I start eating and everything tastes a little off. At this point, she does a “‘Ta da’ and smugly told us ‘I bet it tastes exactly like meat,’” the author said. As you can imagine, this didn’t go well. Not only did the author have to stay in a hospital for 2 days due to her allergic reaction, but she also filed a complaint to the police.

But this was far from the end of the story, so read on below to find out how it escalated. Let me just tell you it involves a degree of felony.

This woman has recently shared a story of how she pressed charges against her roommate who swapped her food with a vegan alternative without being aware she’s “deathly allergic” to soy

Image credits: Thomas Park (not an actual photo)

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

Food tampering laws and related consequences do vary from state to state. For instance, California law (Penal Code Section 347) states that anyone who knowingly adds poison or a harmful substance to any food, drink, medicine, or pharmaceutical product where another person could be harmed is guilty of a felony punishable by a prison sentence of two to five years. If the substance could cause death or great bodily injury to a person, an additional three years is added to the sentence.

According to the United States Department of Justice, Subsection (a) of 18 U.S.C. § 1365 “prohibits tampering or attempted tampering with any consumer product that affects interstate or foreign commerce, or with the labeling of, or the container for, such a product. The tampering must be done with reckless disregard for the risk that another person will be placed in danger of death or bodily injury. Furthermore, the tampering must be done under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the risk of death or bodily injury.”

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

Image credits: Olga Kononenko (not an actual photo)

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

However, we do not know whether this particular case involved food tampering and though the author of the post mentioned that “food tampering is a felony,” she didn’t explain how that related to the incident.
For anyone with a severe food allergy, consuming food with an allergen in it, even the smallest amounts of it, can be extremely dangerous. This may happen though the manufacturing process or during the food preparation process.

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

Image credits: Sandra Dempsey (not an actual photo)

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

When it comes to the author’s allergy, an allergy to soy, it is a common food allergy to soybean products. Often, soy allergy starts in infancy with reaction to soy-based infant formula. Although most children outgrow soy allergy, some carry the allergy into adulthood. Mild signs and symptoms of soy allergy include hives or itching in and around the mouth.

Even though a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) is rare with soy allergy, according to Mayo Clinic, it’s more likely to occur in people who also have asthma or who are allergic to other foods besides soy, such as peanuts. Anaphylaxis causes more extreme signs and symptoms, including: difficulty breathing, caused by throat swelling; shock, with a severe drop in blood pressure; rapid pulse; dizziness, lightheadedness or loss of consciousness.

The author clarified a couple of details to the commenters

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

Certain factors may put you at greater risk of developing a soy allergy, like family history. You’re at increased risk of allergy to soy or other foods if other allergies, such as hay fever, asthma, hives or eczema, are common in your family. Another common factor is age since soy allergy is most common in children, especially toddlers and infants. Other allergies may also put the person at risk of having soy allergy.

According to the Mayo Clinic, in some cases, people who are allergic to wheat, beans (legumes), milk or other foods can also have an allergic reaction to soy. Also, people who are allergic to soy may have test results showing allergy to other legumes, but may be able to eat them with no problem.

Some commenters thought that the author did the right thing

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

However, some thought the author acted like a jerk

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

And some people said that everyone was wrong in this situation

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

Liucija Adomaite is a creative mind with years of experience in copywriting. She has a dynamic set of experiences from advertising, academia, and journalism. This time, she has set out on a journey to investigate the ways in which we communicate ideas on a large scale. Her current mission is to find a magic formula for how to make ideas, news, and other such things spread like a virus.

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Kotryna is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Graphic Design. Before Bored Panda, she worked as a freelance graphic designer and illiustrator. When not editing, she enjoys working with clay, drawing, playing board games and drinking good tea.

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What do you think ?

POST

Pungent Sauce 3 years ago

Roommate situation with deadly allergies and nobody tells the new girl? New girl sucks, but the lack of responsibility on all parties involved here is stupefying.

157points

Lillukka79 3 years ago

That is the reason I'm calling bs on this one. Anybody with anaphylaxis will tell cos their life depends on it.

77points

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SweetsEve 3 years ago

Anyone deathly allergic to soy would have an eppi pin. Anyone deathly allergic to soy would need to know if ANY processed foods were used in making the breakfast. Anyone deathly allergic to soy would make their own breakfast.

17points

Gerard Neaux 3 years ago (edited)

When you have deathly allergies it's deathly stupid not to tell about it. Sure, cook was a bit of a smug jerk but this person with allergy would've won a Darwin award in the 19th century, AND she didn't even carry an epi pen despite her allergy.

21points

Helen Haley 3 years ago

I concur with this assessment.

12points

Caro Caro 3 years ago

Yep and ruined the new girls life. They are both a-holes.

10points

Dan Smith 3 years ago (edited)

If you have a dinner party, do you ask whether anyone has allergies every single time? No, because you assume everyone is a well-adjusted individual who won't try to ruin your life by charging you with a felony if they have an allergic reaction.

9points

Jessica Macklemoore 3 years ago

I dont think she sux at all. I did that same exact thing 2 my step dad recently. All I was trying to do was get an older person who I knew would NEVER try a meat substitute unless they didnt know about it, 2 try it cuz we have about 2 yrs left 2 save this damn planet and raising animals 4 meat is the top contributer 2 climate change. I used 2 b a HUGE meat eater and now I only eat it a few times a month and try 2 stick 2 vegan when I can. Also if youve ever seen a factory farming undercover vid youde never want 2 eat meat again. I was TRYING 2 do the right thing and stop as much suffering as I could & doin wat little I could 2 reduce my fam's carbon footprint. Id expect someone with a deadly allergy 2 TELL ME cuz that's THEIR responsibility!! Cooking some1 a meal IS a nice thing 2 do no matter if u give them fake meat or not. If hed said "I need 2 kno whats in this cuz I'm allergic 2 stuff" then OBVI id tell him it wasn't real meat. Even real frozen meat balls could contain soy tho!

2points

Oogey 3 years ago

You're absolutely pathrtic!!!! She specifically asked the gril what was in it for a reason! All that girl had to do was "BE HONEST" and the entire situation could have been avoided. The girl who ended up in the hospital had zero obligation to tell anyone about her allergies let alone some person she had known for less then 24 hours!

-1point

Kyle L 3 years ago

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Mad Dragon 3 years ago

OP absolutely should have disclosed her allergies, no matter what the food was. My son has a life-threatening allergy to pineapple, and the very first thing he tells people when they invite him to have a meal is, “Just so you know, I have a very severe allergy to pineapple.” Before he sits down, he then reminds them of the allergy and asks about the ingredients of anything he’s not sure about. It may have saved his life one time when the host did not realize there was pineapple in the bottled sauce she used on the chicken; only discovering it when my son asked to read the ingredients off the bottle. Yes, roommate is the a**hole for pulling the bait-and-switch, but OP is responsible for informing anyone serving her food that she has an allergy that can kill her.

111points

Cold Contagious 3 years ago

The thing I have the most problem with is the fact that someone believes fake bacon is real pork bacon 🥓 😐. I've seen it all and eaten tons of different brands and not one kind of fake bacon remotely looks like real pork bacon. It looks closer to begging strips for dogs, honestly. I have a hard time finding it believable that the OP didn't really question the authenticity of the meat based on looks alone, not to mention the smell is far different also. This is just nuts.

64points

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Nicole A 3 years ago

I agree that stuff is obviously very fake. Plus I know when any food I'm allergic to is cooked, tiny molecules of allergens are released. I can be on opposite side of the house but if someone starts cooking seafood I will immediately get severe asthma attack and start getting anaphylaxis. So I find it suspicious that allergy person was in the house that whole time and never even felt ill while the fakon was cooking.

9points

Sweet T 3 years ago

But was it really a bait and switch? The author clearly said the new roommate is a vegetarian, my question is what did they think she was going to cook with, seeing how she herself( new roommate) will also be eating the breakfast.

15points

Samantha Melnychuk 3 years ago

I developed an allergy to bell peppers later on in life when my auto immune condition became active. Thankfully it's not anaphylaxis, but it's pretty miserable in that, as the allergist explained, I get hives in my GI tract (leading to exactly what you're thinking about 15 min after the first bite). I always check ingredients for myself and ask for seasonings to be left off burgers/steaks/fries except for S&P when I'm out. You have to advocate for yourself if you don't want to be sick, because nobody else knows what it's going to feel like but you.

8points

ronni lucy 3 years ago

Thank you, that's being responsible for himself.

0points

Oogey 3 years ago

Hints why she asked the girl cooking what she was cooking!!!! Its amazing we are now in a society where a girl can straight up lie which resulted in someome being hospitalized and then she is the one who gets defended. All she had to do was TELL THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!! Place the responsibility where it belongs.

0points

Kyle L 3 years ago

No, the OP isn't. The roommate is responsible for not lying about what's in food. An allergy medical condition you are not obligated to share with anyone unless you want to. She asked the ingredients and was lied to, end of story. It is in no way her fault that she was lied to and saying she should have told her to prevent being lied to is some next level mental gymnastics.

-3points

Glen Pittman 3 years ago

Really? Where did she ask "Is there any soy in this food"? Where did the roommate say "Nope. No soy." The soy allergy girl is responsible for disclosing her deadly allergies, especially to a known vegetarian cooking her a meal. End of fake story. You could use some mental exercise to learn how to identify clearly made up stories.

5points

Lily 3 years ago

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Marco Hub-Dub 3 years ago

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v 3 years ago

So, you don't believe in common sense and knowledge? You're giving OP credit for "proactively" asking what the ingredients are at the last minute but you're saying that OP had no reason to PROACTIVELY tell the new, known to be vegetarian, roommate that she has a deadly allergy to some of the foods the new roommate may eat before the roommate made a rent agreement and moved in? I'd be willing to bet that this didn't play out as the AITA script would like us to believe. OP would have had no legal standing once it was found out that she didn't make her allergies known.

21points

RP 3 years ago

As a vegetarian, I would have been furious if the roles were reversed and someone had tricked me into eating meat. I would never, ever lie to someone about food. It is an aboslute no-go (you never know who might have allergies or relgious reasons for not eating certain foods, especially 'unclean' meats like pig meat). Allergies aside, the new flatmate was absolutely in the wrong and suing for the medical costs seems reasonable. Having her charged with a felony is completely over the top though. Everyone is a bit stupid at that age and being sued would have been 'lesson' enough. A felony will ruin her for life. The authorn should have informed her of any allergies before having the new flatmate move in, and defintely before letting her into the kitchen. I accidently sent my flatmate to hospital at that age because I didn't wash-up a jar of pesto and left it in the sink once. Thankfully we weren't in the USA. Anything can happen with allergies! It was irresponsible not to be clear on tha

87points

Kai 3 years ago

I totally agree with you. I have a severe allergy to camphor, which can be in medicines and cosmetics. I tell everybody I work with or live with that vicks vapor rub etc could be a hospital visit because I really want to avoid the experience. Most allergic people I know are pretty fast to put the info out there.

33points

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v 3 years ago

Yes the flatmate was wrong for the subterfuge but, according to the story told by OP, OP never told the flatmate about any allergy, deadly or otherwise. What the flatmate did was childish there is no doubt but that it turned as serious as it did is 100% OP's fault.

12points

K Witmer 3 years ago

It's against the law for a reason. You can't mess w peoples food. It's the same as giving drugs or medicine to people wo their knowledge or saying it's Tylenol when it's really aspirin what if this girl had died? The roommate would definitely had went to prison for manslaughter bc she lied about what she was serving doesn't matter if she's nice.

4points

Sgc 3 years ago

The problem here is that the felony charges came first. OP said her uncle, a lawyer, explained she would win a lawsuit if the roommate was found guilty of the tampering charges. This was a deliberate 1-2 punch to ensure a win on the coverage of medical costs.

10points

Mandie Ross-Warneck 3 years ago

As a vegetarian I disagree. Vegetarians are usually so for ethical reasons. Omnivores eat plant based foods as well as meat, and, usually don't have ethical reasons for not eating plant based foods. So there's quite a bit of a contextual difference in the roles being reversed. I do agree though that if someone has food allergies they should absolutely be upfront with their roommates from the beginning. That's a pretty important piece of information. Even in my kids school students have to disclose their allergies so each class can post outside the door in case there are ever any foods in the classes, and there are certain tables kids with allergies are supposed to sit at in the dining hall.

4points

Glen Moore 3 years ago

I call b.s., most people don't know too many people with food allergies, and have no clue how to cook around one, and for anyone with a life threatening anything, that doesn't immediately tell the people SHE LIVES WITH, is most definitely the a**hole, or maybe even suicidal, the new roomie pulled a prank, a prank she had no clue could've possibly hurt anyone, I also don't believe she "refused" to help with the bill,... All that being said, I think this whole post is plain old b.s., too many things don't add up

2points

Anders Eckstrand 3 years ago

So there’s an article in Bloomberg that details how some “plant” based fake-meat manufacturers are discretely using insects to get protein into their fake-meat patties. I was like no way, there would be more lawsuits, you’d hear the vegetarian community in an uproar......but this IS Bloomberg News, a fairly trustworthy source for information. Some “plant” based fake-meats might have mealworm protein in it. Just sayin.

2points

Billy Allen 3 years ago

"unclean' meats like pig meat" pork is just as clean as any other common and uncommon meat and has the same risk factors as all others if consumed raw or undercooked. The idea that pork is dirty is based on religious beliefs and antiquated practices or a lack of that allowed parasites to infect pigs. These same lack of proper livestock management was not limited to pigs and was also commonplace in beef and poultry farming. If you want to see where parasites are more commonplace then take a look at seafood, wild caught fish will have thin hair like worms in the meat.

1point

Liam Lowenthal 3 years ago

I agree. I have to go back to veganism for health reasons. And whenever I have food with my friends, I won't switch things or try to coerce them. If they look at my food and they're curious, I'll ask if they want to try it. It's not that hard. If they say no then they don't want it. There it is leave it alone. I couldn't imagine switching food on people. That's f****** horrible. I will say though that the op is a raging piece of s***. I have a severe allergy to shrimp, my husband has a severe allergy and mushrooms. We don't ask people what's in the food. That is such an open-ended question and it doesn't present any sort of urgency. We will die and hence this is an urgent situation even though it's just food. So we let everyone know we will die if we eat this is there any of that in there. It's not that hard. And I got to tell you that someone who doesn't recognize fake meat especially bacon at sight, and doesn't ask these questions, I have to ask if she did it on purpose just to get $

1point

K Witmer 3 years ago

There are coaches of a high school in the US that are being sued for 4 million $ bc they forced a Jewish boy that cannot eat pork bc of his religious views to eat pizza that they picked the pepperoni off of. They will lose too bc you cannot mess w peoples food plain and simple. It's against the law for a reason. Don't lie about food you serve and don't mess w anyones food. I worked w a guy when I was bartending and I caught him picking his nose and putting it into a customers burger. The customer was a straight up horrible pos but my god you just don't do this ever it absolutely criminal. I threw the food in the trash and told my boss. They let him go. They didn't press charges but I wish they had bc god knows what else he'll do. It should most definitely be a felony to mess with or lie about food

1point

13 3 years ago

Pretty sure op can't sue for the medical costs unless her felony is proven.

1point

ronni lucy 3 years ago

Well you should be smart enough to tell your roommate that you are allergic to soy or tell her you'll prepare your own breakfast that way there's no mistakes. When you have a food allergy like that, it's your responsibility to take care of yourself and make sure you don't eat the wrong things.

0points

Bunzilla 3 years ago

Yep. You don't lie about what you're serving to prove a point or try to force your dietary choices on others. Should the OP have told her about the allergy? Absolutely, especially since she said she was vegetarian. As a vegetarian... I don't eat soy, especially when it's been done up to be like meat. I personally find it vile, but to each their own. A felony charge does seem a bit much, but maybe that was the only way? I'm not familiar enough with the American legal system to make a call on that one.

0points

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Pungent Sauce 3 years ago

Roommate situation with deadly allergies and nobody tells the new girl? New girl sucks, but the lack of responsibility on all parties involved here is stupefying.

157points

Lillukka79 3 years ago

That is the reason I'm calling bs on this one. Anybody with anaphylaxis will tell cos their life depends on it.

77points

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SweetsEve 3 years ago

17points

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

This woman has recently shared a story of how she pressed charges against her roommate who swapped her food with a vegan alternative without being aware she’s “deathly allergic” to soy

The author clarified a couple of details to the commenters

Some commenters thought that the author did the right thing

However, some thought the author acted like a jerk

And some people said that everyone was wrong in this situation

Liucija Adomaite

Liucija Adomaite

Kotryna Br

Kotryna Br

Woman Swaps Out Her Roommate’s Food With Vegan, Ends Up Charged With A Felony

Share iconThis woman has recently shared a story of how she pressed charges against her roommate who swapped her food with a vegan alternative without being aware she’s “deathly allergic” to soy

The author clarified a couple of details to the commenters

Some commenters thought that the author did the right thing

However, some thought the author acted like a jerk

And some people said that everyone was wrong in this situation

Liucija Adomaite

Liucija Adomaite

Kotryna Br

Kotryna Br

This woman has recently shared a story of how she pressed charges against her roommate who swapped her food with a vegan alternative without being aware she’s “deathly allergic” to soy