‘She turned bright red and burst into tears' - pub apologises after girl, aged 2, is served extra hot sauce with family meal

Chanell Palmer told how her daughter, Haría, was given ‘hot hot hot sauce’ rather than a plain tomato topping when they went for a family meal at The Sherwood pub on Birley Moor Road in Frecheville, reports The Star.

The Sherwood is a Hungry Horse pub chain, which is owned by Greene King.

The mum ordered a ‘build your own pasta’ meal for Haría and her brother Charlie, aged three, and was shocked when after a few minutes Haría started screaming, turned bright red and burst into tears.

Chanell said: "We jumped up thinking she was choking and when we realised she wasn’t we wondered what was going on.

"My mum thought it might be the sauce so she tried it and her mouth was on fire.

"When I told the staff what had happened they brought some milk for Haría and gave us a £20 gift card.

"They said they’d just got the sauces mixed up, it was an accident and they were sorry.

"But when I asked how this could happen, it turned out the sauces were stored side by side in the same clear containers.

"I wasn’t interested in getting a gift card, I wanted to ensure this was properly investigated so it doesn't happen again.

"There didn’t seem to be any consideration about how serious it could have been. What if they’d given nuts to someone with a nut allergy?”

‘We have apologised to our customer for this error and are sorry for the understandable concern it caused for her family’

Chanell told how Haría had to visit a walk-in health centre the night before when her asthma flared up, so she was worried when the youngster began coughing uncontrollably after eating the hot sauce, but thankfully the coughing fit stopped after giving her some medication.

She also described how her daughter was so traumatised by the experience, that she wouldn’t eat anything for two days.

A spokesperson for The Sherwood pub said: “We have apologised to our customer for this error and are sorry for the understandable concern it caused for her family.

“We pride ourselves on our high standards and fortunately incidents like this are extremely rare.

“We are investigating how this happened to make sure it does not happen again.”