CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — When a pregnant woman from Canada ordered a latte from McDonald's, she realized she had been served a cup of cleaning solution instead.
Sarah Douglas, who is 32-weeks pregnant, stopped by an Alberta location for some coffee before taking her son to a baseball game.
After leaving the drive-thru line, she took a sip of her drink.
"I immediately had to put my hazard lights on and pull over and spit it out and rinse my mouth out with … water," Douglas told the CBC.
“I opened up the lid of the coffee and out pours this pungent smell of chemical. It wasn’t a latte at all.”
When she returned to the fast food chain to inform the employees of the issue, they discovered that the coffee machine had a cleaning line hooked into the milk dispenser.
Soon after, she contacted her family doctor and the local poison control center. Since she did not swallow the chemicals, health officials found she was in good standing.
The McDonald’s franchise owner Dan Brown later released a statement about the incident.
“McDonald's is renowned for its food safety protocols and I am sorry that this happened in my restaurant,” he 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.”
Although the restaurant apologized for the mistake, Douglas said it was important to speak out about her experience to prevent it from happening again.
"As a mother," she said, "I want to make sure I have voice and that I'm being heard in terms of the safety of consumers."
Cox Media Group
