During the trial it was revealed that McDonald’s knew that heating their coffee to this temperature would be dangerous, but they did it anyways because it would save them money. When you serve coffee that is too hot to drink, it will take much longer for a person to drink their coffee, which means that McDonald’s will not have to give out as many free refills of coffee. This policy by the fast food chain is the reason the jury awarded $2.7 million dollars in punitive damages in the McDonald’s hot coffee case. Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant for their inappropriate business practice.

      • The QuuuuuillEnglish
        14•2 years ago

        Step one: keep it on a hot plate that keeps it at 200° so that you can serve it longer

        That is all the steps

        • @jarfil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4•2 years ago

          There is an additional step:

          • Serve it in a disposable container that doesn’t soak up any of the heat.

          Pouring hot coffee into a thick cold porcelain cup, tends to quickly cool it down to drinkable levels. A flimsy paper cup… not so much.

          • @assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4•2 years ago

            And now imagine giving that to a person in a moving vehicle without a lid.

            There’s so much fucked up here it’s almost unbelievable. This is legitimately a bigger safety risk, after all is said and done, than many risks in an industrial chemical plant.

        • @Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          -4•2 years ago

          but water only goes to 100 degrees, even with other stuff dissolved i can’t imagine a water-based liquid going much higher than like 120 degrees at most…

          • shuzukoEnglish
            18•2 years ago

            200 Fahrenheit. That’s 93.3C. Just below literal boiling.

            Edit for more information, an adult human will suffer 3rd degree burns if exposed to 150F (65.5C) liquid for two seconds. This was 133% hotter than liquid that will cause 3rd degree burns. And it was poured directly in her lap, soaked into cloth that she could not easily remove. This was straight up evil levels of negligent.

            • @assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2•2 years ago

              To add on, even when something isn’t boiling, it’ll generate an appreciable amount of vapor. The boiling point is just the temperature at which bubbles form within the liquid. The top surface is still going to give off hot steam. I honestly don’t know if near boiling vs boiling is a meaningful distinction in terms of how dangerous it is.

              I wonder actually if a boiling liquid would be slightly safer because there’s more vapor and less liquid.