A Staten Island woman says she bit into more than steak and gravy during her senior year at SUNY Delhi — she says she swallowed a sharp metal rivet hidden inside a dining hall sandwich, and now she's suing the school's food-service operators over it. Barbara Esposito-Mattera, 22, says the object came from a Benny Brown sub she ordered from Yella's, a campus eatery at the upstate college, in September 2025.
According to the New York Post, Esposito-Mattera was a senior environmental studies major at the time she says she ingested what her lawsuit describes as a “sharp piece of metal rivet” while eating the sandwich, which was loaded with sliced steak, sautéed onions, mozzarella and gravy. She has since filed suit in Staten Island Supreme Court against the College Association at Delhi and Sodexo, seeking unspecified damages.
The lawsuit claims the metal hardware left her severely and permanently injured, and it blames both the College Association at Delhi and Sodexo for serving food unfit for human consumption, the outlet's report notes. The College Association at Delhi reportedly manages SUNY Delhi's dining options, while Sodexo is identified in the filing as Yella's food-licensing partner.
No Comment From Either Side
Esposito-Mattera declined to comment when reached, and her attorney, John Januas, did not return a request for comment, per the same account. The College Association at Delhi and Sodexo also did not return requests for comment, leaving the specifics of the allegation — including how the metal ended up in the food — unaddressed publicly by any of the named parties.
SUNY Delhi sits in the Catskills, a rural stretch of upstate New York. The case adds to a small but attention-grabbing pattern of lawsuits over foreign objects turning up in food: a West Melbourne, Florida woman was reportedly awarded a $14 million judgment after ingesting metal in an ice cream cone, according to WFIT Local & State News.
What Happens Next
As it stands, the underlying complaint has not been made public in full, and there's no confirmation yet on whether the case has been served, answered or scheduled for any court dates. For now, the allegations remain just that — allegations — as Esposito-Mattera's suit against the College Association at Delhi and Sodexo moves through Staten Island Supreme Court.
