A Louisiana woman is suing restaurant company Applebee's International Inc., charging she found a severed fingertip in her salad.

The lawsuit - the second filed in the United States this year involving a severed finger in restaurant food - was filed last week in state court in Jefferson, Louisiana.

The suit claims May Deal Chambers Johnson suffered physical and psychological harm when she discovered a finger in a take-out salad from an Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson in June 2004.

A California woman drew national attention in March when she said she found a finger in a bowl of chili from a Wendy's International Inc. restaurant in San Jose, California.

The case was later found to be a hoax and the woman was jailed on grand theft charges, but not before Wendy's suffered profitwise.

Applebee's is accused of unsanitary food preparation and improper training of employees, as well as "failure to prevent the inclusion of a human fingertip in a salad to go."

Applebee's, headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, has nearly 1,700 restaurants in 49 states and 12 countries.