Bought coffee with cleaning chemical in it

faringdon

Hi,
I went into a well known high street shop on Friday at 0700 hrs and ordered
takeaway food and coffee.
After drinking the coffee, I began to feel like a burning, painful sensation in the lower
regions of my gullett.

I believe that they must have washed the coffee machine with dishwasher detergent but forgotten to rinse it with
water, so therefore I ended up drinking the dishwasher detergent unwittingly.

Its now sunday afternoon, and I can still feel some pain at the bottom of my gullett (oesophagus).

Anyway, the same thing had happened on the Thursday, but that was a much milder pain.

It was incidentally the same member of staff who served me on both occasions.

Are there no types of coffee machines which allow washing but make it impossible for this to happen?

Incidentally, I wrote to the chain on the Friday, and they got back and asked me who had served me and what
time I went to buy the coffee.

Has anybody else experienced this? Shouldnt all coffee vendors have a camera over the machine so they can check staff are not putting in chemical to try and "reduce the customer count", and therefore reduce their workload.?

TadleyBaggie

more cameras…no

Grumpy_chap

Hi,
I went into a well known high street shop on Friday at 0700 hrs and ordered
takeaway food and coffee.
After drinking the coffee, I began to feel like a burning, painful sensation in the lower
regions of my gullett.

I believe that they must have washed the coffee machine with dishwasher detergent but forgotten to rinse it with
water, so therefore I ended up drinking the dishwasher detergent unwittingly.

Its now sunday afternoon, and I can still feel some pain at the bottom of my gullett (oesophagus).

Anyway, the same thing had happened on the Thursday, but that was a much milder pain.

It was incidentally the same member of staff who served me on both occasions.

Are there no types of coffee machines which allow washing but make it impossible for this to happen?

Incidentally, I wrote to the chain on the Friday, and they got back and asked me who had served me and what
time I went to buy the coffee.

Has anybody else experienced this? Shouldnt all coffee vendors have a camera over the machine so they can check staff are not putting in chemical to try and "reduce the customer count", and therefore reduce their workload.?

Your timelines seem a bit unclear in that so it is difficult to understand when this all occurred and the sequence of events.

Staff in a coffee shop would not be trying to reduce the customer count / workload as then they'd be out of a job.

Have you been to your GP and / or Emergency Department for medical investigation?

born_again

If on drinking coffee & feeling burning, did you not go back & complain. Or at least given your feelings on what it maybe. Save the coffee so it could be checked out.

Really something that would be better asking on local facebook group given it is a local issue.

rollingmoon

"Has anybody else experienced this? Shouldnt all coffee vendors have a camera over the machine so they can check staff are not putting in chemical to try and "reduce the customer count", and therefore reduce their workload.?"

Are you seriously suggesting that the staff at this coffee shop are trying to poison the customers?

mikb

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82165489#Comment_82165489

That would be pretty barbaric. Barbaristas? 🤔

Jemma01

Your accusations are so wild, it's mindboggling, even worse, you're putting someone's job at risk and escalating without even alerting the coffee shop directly and giving them a chance to investigateI. f you truly believe it is them, trying to kll you, what would possess you to return?

You might have had a heartburn, were you in both instances the first person to be served in both mornings?

Grumpy_chap

 did you not go back & complain

escalating without even alerting the coffee shop directly

Well, the OP said

I wrote to the chain on the Friday, and they got back

I took it that must have been a local branch as, the way I understand the timeline:

• Thursday, OP had a coffee and mild pain
• Friday 07:00, OP had a coffee and experienced burning, painful sensation
• Friday, OP wrote to the coffee shop (who have already responded by Sunday lunchtime)
• Sunday, OP still in some discomfort

It is unclear whether the OP has sought any medical attention.

I am unsighted as to how commercial coffee shops clean the internals of the coffee machines. I understand the "on shift" cleaning is generally using steam to scour the pipes. If there is an "end of shift" clean using a cleaning chemical of any kind, I would have expected the chemical to have been selected in the knowledge that (if the process malfunctioned) there may be residue in served product. I also expect that the concentration of any cleaning chemicals is low and further diluted by the actual making of the first coffee that any residual is probably so dilute as to be inconsequential. It would seem to need a number of steps to fault to actually result in a coffee to a customer that has sufficient chemical residue to cause illness / discomfort.

QrizB

I went into a well known high street shop on Friday at 0700 hrs and ordered takeaway food and coffee.
After drinking the coffee, I began to feel like a burning, painful sensation in the lower regions of my gullett.

Anyway, the same thing had happened on the Thursday, but that was a much milder pain.

It sounds like indigestion, or (if you're unlucky) an ulcer, or (if you're even more unlucky) cancer.

Have you been to your GP and / or Emergency Department for medical investigation?

This is the thing you need to do.

BridgetTheCat

if you genuinely believe you’ve been given adulterated food/drink it’s a food safety issue and should be reported to your local council’s Environmental Health Department, ideally with the cup and any dregs left in it. They have the power to go in and investigate cleaning routines etc.

As others have said, it might be wise to see a doctor/A&E

elsien

If you also believe that the coffee shop is poisoning their customers, it is probably not a good idea not to keep going back to the shop regardless.

I would suggest editing your title to say you were served a coffee which may or may not have had cleaning fluid in the cup, because you haven’t seen a doctor to actually find out what the cause of the symptoms are.