Toxic tea : Utah woman drinking tea laced with chemicals at restaurant

Surveillance video from the toxic tea incident at a restaurant in Utah has just been released.

In the video, you can see Jan Harding in a blue shirt. She takes a few sips of her iced tea, then spit it out and rinses her mouth out with water.

The footage shows other diners at Dickey’s Barbecue in South Jordan looking on as the panic-stricken 67-year-old bent over the drinks station in agony.

She remained hunched over in pain for around a minute before her husband came over her to help her.

Authorities have ruled the drink station was accidentally mixed with cleaning chemicals that created a dangerous concoction.

Ms Harding spent two weeks in hospital after suffering severe chemical burns to her mouth, throat and oesophagus, the New York Daily News says.

“When you watch the footage, you can see that as soon as she takes a sip, immediately, she knew something was wrong,” the family’s attorney Paxton Guymon told TV station FOX 13 in Salt Lake City. “You can almost see the panic on her face, too, like she doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Incredibly, a similar incident occurred at the restaurant five weeks ago and an employee suffered burns, Mr Guymon said.

The family has since learned that a former worker accidentally mistook a bucket of fryer cleaner for a sugar container because they looked the same.

Ms Harding is seeking monetary compensation and for the barbecue chain to ensure the mistake does not happen again, Mr Guymon said.

Agencies/Canadajournal