Boneless Contention
In a split verdict, Ohio’s Supreme Court has ruled that labelling a menu item as ‘boneless’ is a reference to the “cooking style” and is not a guarantee of the absence of bones. To quote from the majority opinion:
[R]egarding the food item’s being called a “boneless wing,” it is common sense that that label was merely a description of the cooking style. A diner reading “boneless wings” on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating “chicken fingers” would know that he had not been served fingers. The food item’s label on the menu described a cooking style; it was not a guarantee.
But it is the dissenting opinion that is more noteworthy in the manner that it tears apart those assertions. To quote:
The absurdity of this result is accentuated by some of the majority’s explanation for it, which reads like a Lewis Carroll piece of fiction. The majority opinion states that “it is common sense that [the label ‘boneless wing’] was merely a description of the cooking style.” Jabberwocky. There is, of course, no authority for this assertion, because no sensible person has ever written such a thing. The majority opinion also states that “[a] diner reading ‘boneless wings’ on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating ‘chicken fingers’ would know that he had not been served fingers.” More utter jabberwocky. Still, you have to give the majority its due; it realizes that boneless wings are not actually wings and that chicken fingers are not actually fingers.
The majority’s burst of common sense was short-lived, however, because its opinion also says that no person would conclude that a restaurant’s use of the word “boneless” on a menu was the equivalent of the restaurant’s “warranting the absence of bones.” Actually, that is exactly what people think. It is, not surprisingly, also what dictionaries say. “Boneless” means “without a bone.” Cambridge English Dictionary, (accessed June 6, 2024). It means “without bones.” Collins Dictionary, (accessed June 6, 2024); YourDictionary, (accessed June 6, 2024). And it means “(of meat or fish) without any bones.” Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, (accessed June 6, 2024).
The question must be asked: Does anyone really believe that the parents in this country who feed their young children boneless wings or chicken tenders or chicken nuggets or chicken fingers expect bones to be in the chicken? Of course they don’t. When they read the word “boneless,” they think that it means “without bones,” as do all sensible people. That is among the reasons why they feed such items to young children. The reasonable expectation that a person has when someone sells or serves him or her boneless chicken wings is that the chicken does not have bones in it.