A 22-year-old woman had eaten most of her lunch salad at a Red Robin in Jackson Township, Ohio, Tuesday when she put a morsel into her mouth that turned out to be the tip of a human thumb.

An employee chopping lettuce the night before had sliced off part of his left thumb, along with part of the nail.

He was rushed to the hospital, but restaurant workers were apparently unable to find the piece of finger.

On Tuesday, that finger and nail ended up on a patron's plate.

The health department says the woman actually consumed part of the fingertip, thinking it was a piece of gristle , TV station WEWS reported.

Red Robin said that other workers, in their haste to get the injured employee to the doctor, overlooked the missing piece.

WEWS went to the restaurant for answers, but the manager would not comment on the incident. The Red Robin Corp. did not put the blame on a specific employee, but admitted that what happened on the food line was wrong.

Red Robin said it actually has a policy for what do to in such cases -- throw out all the food in the area. Instead, the lettuce, and the thumb tip, were put in the cooler and served up in salads the next day.

Red Robin has been cited by the Stark County Health Department for serving adulterated food and not having proper supervision.