The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Starbucks Corp. on Tuesday announced a voluntary recall of a coffee grinder sold by the coffeehouse giant, saying the machine can turn on or off unexpectedly, posing a “laceration hazard.”
The commission said it has received 176 reports of grinders that failed to turn off or that turned on unexpectedly. Three people said they suffered hand lacerations when the grinder turned on while they were cleaning it.
The grinder was sold for about $30 at Starbucks as well as sister brand Seattle’s Best Coffee between March 2002 and March 2009. It was manufactured by Tsann Kuen (Zhangzhou) Enterprise Co. Ltd. of China, and officials said about 530,000 of the grinders were sold.
Starbucks said customers should immediately stop using the product and contact the company to receive a free replacement. Photos of the product and SKU numbers are available at www.cpsc.gov and http://starbucks.tekgroup.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=230.
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].