It seems to me that, if no-one's finger has gone missing, then the possibles are that someone has been disposed of, or someone has added the finger to their own serving of chili after the fact (to provide grounds for a lawsuit). Hence, my curiousity about testing for preservatives.

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It is hard to convey five-dimensional ideas in a language evolved to scream defiance at the monkeys in the next tree. -- The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch, by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen