Three people ordered margaritas at a Chili’s in Forest City, North Carolina on Wednesday and ended up with chemical burns in and around their mouths.
The Foothills Health District says an industrial degreaser got into the margarita station because an employee believed the granules in an unlabeled container were sugar.
Here is how it happened, according to the health district. On Monday, a contractor power washing the outside of the building handed an employee a granulated degreasing chemical. The employee put it into a container with no label and left it in the bar area.
Two days later, an employee setting up the bar for lunch found the container, took it for sugar, and used it while preparing the margarita station. The three customers felt the burn right away and left to get medical care.
“Immediately experienced discomfort and chemical burns in and around their mouths.”
Foothills Health District, on the three customers
Then two employees tasted the suspect substance themselves and reported similar symptoms. Health officials suspended the restaurant’s food permit while they investigated, then reinstated it Thursday after confirming the location met the rest of its food safety requirements.
The counts do not fully line up. The health district says three customers were burned. In its statement, Chili’s put the number of injured guests at two, said it responded right away to support the people affected, and said it is investigating how the chemical ended up in the bar.
The health district’s reminder to every restaurant in the state was simple: label your chemicals and keep them away from the food. Especially the ones that look like sugar.
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