Ridiculous packet instructions

Herbie

Veteran
Joined
20 Jul 2017
Local time
8:51 PM
Messages
2,005
Location
Staffordshire, England
Remember when they started adding warnings on food packets like 'may contain nuts' on a bag of peanuts? I

I'm making humus for an event tomorrow and soaked the chickpeas overnight and have just a checked the packed to see how long I need to boil them for. Well, the instructions on the bag kindly told me to 'follow the instructions on the packet'!!!
 
I often buy foods from a Korean supermarket where, except for the nutritional info which is required by law, the only instructions are written in Korean with hopefully a few basic pictures.

I was glad that I was home the day my wife first tried to make curried yakisoba noodles from one of the packets.
There were pictures of instructions to tear open and add certain tiny packages to the noodles at diffetent stages of cooking, however there was also a desicant packet included that had a warning on it not to eat, but yes, the warning was in Korean. It certainly looked like one of the regular ingredients.

Yum, desicant yakisoba. I need a soju.
 
Last edited:
We have a drinks vending machine at work which has a warning sticker on it, apparently hot drinks will be hot once dispensed :o_o:

I once worked at a company where there were kettles provided for making hot drinks. One day, the powers that be removed the kettles without warning. The kettles reappeared about two hours later, complete with stickers announcing, "Caution - water may be extremely hot."

Got it, Sherlock - thanks.
 
One of the best instructions I've seen was on a pair of chopsticks in a little red paper wrapper.

It said: remove chopsticks from wrapper, place in hand, please to enjoy with fingers.

I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to use my fingers to eat, use the chopsticks, or eat my fingers using chopsticks.
 
The biggest problem with these warning labels/instructions is the detriment to the gene pool by the CSC (Common Sense Challenged)! :facepalm:
 
The biggest problem with these warning labels/instructions is the detriment to the gene pool by the CSC (Common Sense Challenged)! :facepalm:
In every case where there's an idiotic warning, you can be sure that an idiot somewhere tried to do what they're warning against. Here's a site that has what it considers the dumbest warning labels of all-time:

https://www.forbes.com/2011/02/23/d...es-marketing-warning-labels.html#5320c5a3633b

As it says on the site:

"America's legal system is based on the fact that there are some things so obvious that you don't need to warn about [them]," says Bob Dorigo Jones, senior fellow for the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the American legal system. Still, he adds, "it doesn't stop people from suing because the legal system has become a litigation lottery."

A personal favorite:

Warning: May cause drowsiness.
Product: Nytol sleeping pills.
 
In every case where there's an idiotic warning, you can be sure that an idiot somewhere tried to do what they're warning against. Here's a site that has what it considers the dumbest warning labels of all-time:

https://www.forbes.com/2011/02/23/d...es-marketing-warning-labels.html#5320c5a3633b

As it says on the site:

"America's legal system is based on the fact that there are some things so obvious that you don't need to warn about [them]," says Bob Dorigo Jones, senior fellow for the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the American legal system. Still, he adds, "it doesn't stop people from suing because the legal system has become a litigation lottery."

A personal favorite:

Warning: May cause drowsiness.
Product: Nytol sleeping pills.

Didn't someone try sue the makers of pop-tarts because their son burned his mouth when he bit into 1 that was fresh out of the toaster :o_o:
 
Didn't someone try sue the makers of pop-tarts because their son burned his mouth when he bit into 1 that was fresh out of the toaster :o_o:

Don't forget the lady who sued McDonald's because she spilled hot coffee in her lap.:headshake:
 
Don't forget the lady who sued McDonald's because she spilled hot coffee in her lap.:headshake:
The jury awarded her $2.86 million, but the award was brought down to $640,000. No wonder why people without any shame will try to sue corporations for frivolous things. As the lawyer I quote above notes, "...the legal system has become a litigation lottery."
 
In the 1960s I worked for the deputy company secretary of a very large chemicals manufacturing company, some of whose products were actually food items or ingredients. One of my jobs was to re-write instruction leaflets etc in intelligible English. At the time, most of their new imports were Japanese and the instructions were nearly all in those awful pictures, a bit like the ones you get these days with flat-pack furniture. It used to take me a while to fathom some of them out.
 
Sorry I'm a bit late in coming to this thread, but what about those ready-cooked meals which instruct something along the lines of 'After cooking, stand for one minute'? Hmmm, what interesting thing can I do for one minute?

Naillig
 
Back
Top Bottom