McDonald’s has apologised after a Canadian customer was served coffee containing cleaning fluid at one of its restaurants.
Sarah Douglas, who is 32 weeks pregnant, ordered a latte at a McDonald’s in Lethbridge, southern Alberta, while taking her son to a baseball game on Sunday morning.
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“I immediately had to put my hazard lights on and pull over and spit it out and rinse my mouth out,” she told local news website Lethbridgenewsnow.com.
“I opened up the lid of the coffee and out pours this pungent smell of chemical. It wasn’t a latte at all.”
Instead, she had been served a “watery-brownish” solution of coffee and cleaning agent containing chemicals including citric acid and phosphoric acid.
“My tongue felt fuzzy and my mouth felt almost numb,” she told news channel CTV Calgary.
When she returned to the restaurant to complain, she says the supervisor on duty responded by offering her a replacement coffee.
“I said, ‘absolutely not, this is unacceptable’,” she told the website.
The franchisee of the Lethbridge McDonald’s, has since issued an apology for the incident, which he says was the result of a mix-up during scheduled cleaning.
“What happened is that the machine was being cleaned – as it is every morning. Unfortunately, the milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guest’s drink was made,” Dan Brown said.
“We have taken immediate action to review the proper cleaning procedures with the team and have put additional signage up as an added reminder.”
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