Cornett says he became physically and mentally ill at the thought that he could have exposed himself to some kind of disease. The herbivorous rodent kind of disease. Cornett's lawyer said that Kraft asked him to submit the tooth for testing. The lawyer declined that request—he didn't want to part with the evidence.

Now, I'm as grossed out by this as anyone else but I'm a little concerned about the fact that the plaintiff was enjoying a package of peanuts from last year. I assume they were never opened but I also assume that peanuts have a shelf life.

In fact, according to Feridies, [World's Best Peanuts and Specialty Foods], peanuts in cellophane bags have a shelf life of only four to six weeks! Assuming a store-bought bag of Planter's peanuts counts as cellophane storage, those peanuts went stale eight months ago.

And, upon further research, I learned that peanuts—along with other ground and tree nuts—have the potential to grow Aspergillus and Aflatoxin when stale. Aspergillus and Aflatoxin are a toxic, carcinogenic fungi than can make you really sick if you eat it. As I understand it, aflatoxins are similar to mycotoxins and can result in some pretty serious illness. Like liver cancer, for instance.

Biology and chemistry aside, what I'm saying is that I don't doubt for moment that Cornett got sick from eating that bag of old peanuts. But I'm not entirely convinced it was because he found the tooth of an herbivorous rodent in his snack. Yes, I'll definitely need to see some conclusive test results on the origin of the "tooth".

In closing, I'd like to extend my services to Kraft's defense attorneys. With all the research I've done on aflatoxins today, I think I could be of great help.

[FURTHER READING]:

• A 1999 study of human diseases caused by mold [World Health Organization]
• The science behind aflatoxins [International Research Corps]
• One blogger's take on aflatoxins and how to keep your food fungus-free [Here Be Dragons]