Illinois Woman Claims Nutribullet Exploded and Burned Her

An Illinois woman recently filed a new Nutribullet blending lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She claims that while using the Nutribullet blender, she was seriously injured. She includes in her complaint references to several other similar lawsuits filed in courts through the U.S. alleging similar incidents to the one she experienced.

Plaintiff Claims Nutribullet Blender is Defective

According to her complaint, the plaintiff was using her Nutribullet blender on July 6, 2020, when she suffered serious and substantial burn injuries as a result of the blender’s plastic cup explosively separating from the blade base. This allowed the scalding hot contents in the blender to be forcefully ejected on onto her.

She claims that the incident occurred because the Nutribullet blender is defective, allowing the plastic cup to pressurize to the point that the canister separates from the blade base. She adds that the manufacturer failed to warn consumers about the problem and the dangers associated with the product.

How the Nutribullet Might Burn Someone

Nutribullet blenders are high-powered blenders and/or food processors that according to the manufacturer, have the power to “break down the cell wall of the stems, seeds, and skins of the food, unleashing the nutrients locked inside while still retaining all the beneficial fiber and pulp.”

All Nutribullet blenders have three essential components:

1. A powered base unit that contains a high-speed motor
2. A plastic cup-shaped container that holds the ingredients to be blended
3. A plastic lid mounted with metal blades, which screws into the cup and its energized by the base

During the normal use of the blender, the customer puts cool or room temperature food into the plastic cup. Once the cup is secured to the blade assembly and placed on the unit’s base, the user is able to run the blender by pressing down on the cup. The blades rotate, creating friction as they cut and chop the cup’s contents, which in turn causes the contents to heat up.

As the temperature rises inside the cup, the pressure from the frictional energy also rises. According to the plaintiff’s complaint, the temperature can “get so hot that the pressure inside the cup forces the cup to separate from the blade while the blender is still running. This can cause the hot contents of the cup to explosively project outward without warning, landing on anyone and anything nearby.”

The plaintiff adds that even if the cup doesn’t separate from the blender during use, the user is still at risk because the contents of the cup are hot and may explode out when the cup is open. This can cause severe burns, such as what the plaintiff suffered.

Other Consumers Make Similar Claims About the Nutribullet Blender

The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has received several reports of other similar incidents experienced by consumers using Nutribullet blenders. A report submitted in 2019, for instance, describes a woman who was using her Nutribullet she got as a Christmas gift to puree room temperature and cold food for her four-year-old daughter, when the blender exploded, causing burning hot food to fly all over her kitchen. The liquid caused burns to her chest and hand.

The plaintiff also references many other similar lawsuits filed against Nutribullet describing similar situations, such as one filed in California in 2019. In that complaint, the plaintiff claims to have been using the Nutribullet to prepare a smoothie when the canister exploded upwards off the base, hitting the ceiling and making direct contact with the plaintiff’s thumb in the process, splitting it open. The force of the impact ruptured the plaintiff’s thumb, resulting in a fractured bone and significant blood loss.