A McDonald’s in Canada is apologizing after a pregnant woman was accidentally served a latte laced with cleaning fluid.
The incident occurred on Sunday, July 29, when Sarah Douglas, who is 32 weeks pregnant with her third child, ordered her drink via a McDonald’s drive-through in Alberta, Canada. After she took the first sip, she promptly spit it out.
“I opened up the lid of the coffee and out pours this pungent smell of chemical,” she told Lethbridge News Now. “It wasn’t a latte at all.”
According to Global News, Douglas then returned to the McDonald’s where she had purchased the drink and discovered her latte contained a cleaner that had been mistakenly left connected to the machine that brewed her beverage.
“Since learning about the complaint, our team has been in very close contact with the guest and apologized to her. The health inspector also visited my restaurant and is not investigating further,” Dan Brown, the owner and operator of the Alberta McDonald’s, tells Us Weekly in a statement. “McDonald’s is renowned for its food safety protocols and I am sorry that this happened in my restaurant here in Lethbridge.”
As Brown explains, the mishap occurred as the coffee machine was in the midst of its daily cleaning. “Unfortunately, the milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guest’s drink was made,” he says.
Brown also notes that he has taken “immediate action” to review the proper cleaning procedures with his team, and has put additional signage up as an added reminder, so as to avoid mistakes like this in the future.
Per Global News, Douglas feared for her baby’s health, so she contacted poison control and visited a doctor after the incident, and is now feeling fine.
Still, Douglas wants to ensure something like this won’t happen again. “As a mother, I want to make sure I have voice and that I’m being heard in terms of the safety of consumers, and how (alleged) negligence can affect people in such a drastic way,” she explained to Lethbridge News Now.
