Woman orders sweet tea at McDonald’s, claims workers served her sanitizer | mcdonald, sweet, tea – The Star Online : The Newspaper of Cleveland County.
Shawna Bruce took a big swig of her sweet tea at 7 a.m. Saturday after visiting a McDonald’s drive-through and felt her throat burning.
“My throat was literally on fire,” she said. “I was hoarse; I went to the emergency room. Not only have I drank something that has irritated my throat, I have broken out and there are several issues going on.”
Bruce said she purchased a biscuit and sweet tea from the restaurant on the corner of Hoffman and Gaston Day School roads in Gastonia just as she does regularly.
“Basically, the diagnosis was an allergic reaction to chemical solution,” she said. “The doctor actually tested the Ph level of the tea and it was five. It shows an acid solution, it should be at seven.”
Bruce said she went to the doctor on Monday for chemical burns and a change of antibiotics. She’s taking three to four medications due to this incident alone.
According to Bruce, she talked with the McDonald’s owner and operator, Jeff Stanton, and he told her he was very disappointed in his staff and “he could not believe it happened.”
“He expressed that they were concerned about it and would pay my medical bills, he was nice,” she said.
Stanton released a statement saying that the Hoffman Road McDonald’s has a 98 percent health grade and “has received superior health grades since its opening.”
“Nothing is more important to me than the safety and well-being of our customers and we take this matter seriously,” the statement said. “We have the highest standards for safety and quality, and we are incredibly committed to providing our customers with an outstanding restaurant and food experience.
“While I can’t discuss this customer issue specifically, I can tell you that the Health Department visited our restaurant on Monday, March 7, and concluded that there were no food safety issues.”
Chemical
Bruce said she went directly into the restaurant Saturday morning to ask what was in her drink.
She said the manager on duty told her it was “McD’s sanitizer.”
“It’s Clorox, basically what it boils down to,” she said. “I’m upset because I don’t know the longevity of this. I have swallowed acid and basically we have an issue here. I’m wondering who else this happened to.”
With the tea still in-hand, she asked for another cup to put it in – and the cashier told her they’d have to charge for it.
“That’s what really topped it off for me. You’re going to charge me for another cup when you’ve just burned my throat, this is unbelievable,” she said.
Gaston County Environmental Health Administrator Curtis Hopper said he had received the complaint and had investigated.
“We did visit the McDonalds. We just check on the process, they have a process for making their tea and that’s about all we can do at this point,” Hopper said. “It’s standard operation for any complaint we receive that we visit the site and address the complaint with the manager.”
Hopper said McDonalds had walked him through their tea-making process.
“We document it and kept it on file. That’s really all we’ve done at this point, anything else is news to me.”
Bruce said she has two children and is glad one of them didn’t drink it.
“You don’t realize how valuable your health is until something happens,” she said. “Like my husband said, somebody could’ve easily gotten it; it was so early in the morning.”
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