--- title: McDonald's Apologizes for Serving Cleaning Solution to Woman description: McDonald's has apologized for mistakenly serving cleaning solution to a customer in Alberta instead of her coffee. canonical: https://time.com/5355343/mcdonalds-cleaning-solution/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-01T18:03:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:07.084Z og:title: McDonald's Apologizes for Serving Cleaning Solution to Woman og:description: Definitely not what she ordered og:url: https://time.com/5355343/mcdonalds-cleaning-solution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52e9ea1458c1eaaf/698936d1656a3fb482bd51dd/mcdonalds-serves-woman-cleaning-solution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: McDonald's Same Store Sales Up 7.1 Percent In January og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: McDonald's Apologizes for Serving Cleaning Solution to Woman twitter:description: Definitely not what she ordered twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52e9ea1458c1eaaf/698936d1656a3fb482bd51dd/mcdonalds-serves-woman-cleaning-solution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # McDonald's Apologizes to Woman For Serving Her Cleaning Solution Instead of Coffee > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 1, 2018 6:03 PM UTC  SAN FRANCISCO - FEBRUARY 09: A sign stands outside of a McDonald's restaurant February 9, 2009 in San Francisco, California. Fast food chain restaurant McDonald's reported a 7.1 percent increase in same store sales for January as people look towards cheaper food alternatives in the weakening economy. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) SAN FRANCISCO - FEBRUARY 09: A sign stands outside of a McDonald's restaurant February 9, 2009 in San Francisco, California. Fast food chain restaurant McDonald's reported a 7.1 percent increase in same store sales for January as people look towards cheaper food alternatives in the weakening economy. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 1, 2018 6:03 PM UTC [McDonald’s](http://time.com/5331777/old-mcdonalds-cheeseburger/) has issued an apology after a Canadian woman said she was served [cleaning solution](http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/26/is-spring-cleaning-a-health-risk/) instead of a latte by an Alberta outpost of the fast food giant. According to [_The Globe and Mail_](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-mcdonalds-apologizes-for-serving-alberta-woman-cleaning-solution/), Sarah Douglas, an Alberta woman pregnant with her third child, ordered a coffee from a McDonald’s drive-through but realized after one sip that something was off. Later, when she returned to the restaurant to complain, a staff member told her that cleaning lines had been hooked up to the latte machine. “As a mother, I want to make sure I have voice and that I’m being heard in terms of the safety of consumers, and how (alleged) negligence can affect people in such a drastic way,” Douglas said. She has since contacted Alberta’s Health Services’ poison control. A spokesperson released a statement about the incident on behalf of the McDonald’s franchisee, Dan Brown. “What happened is that the machine was being cleaned — as it is every morning,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, the milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guest’s drink was made. We have taken immediate action to review the proper cleaning procedures with the team and have put additional signage up as an added reminder.” McDonald’s also stated that a health inspector had visited the restaurant. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5355343/mcdonalds-cleaning-solution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5355343/mcdonalds-cleaning-solution/"},"headline":"McDonald's Apologizes to Woman For Serving Her Cleaning Solution Instead of Coffee","datePublished":"2018-08-01T18:03:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:07.084Z","description":"Definitely not what she ordered","url":"https://time.com/5355343/mcdonalds-cleaning-solution/","keywords":["Newsfeed","food and drink"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52e9ea1458c1eaaf/698936d1656a3fb482bd51dd/mcdonalds-serves-woman-cleaning-solution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52e9ea1458c1eaaf/698936d1656a3fb482bd51dd/mcdonalds-serves-woman-cleaning-solution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"McDonald's Same Store Sales Up 7.1 Percent In January","caption":"McDonald's Same Store Sales Up 7.1 Percent In January","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5355343/mcdonalds-cleaning-solution/","name":"McDonald's Apologizes to Woman For Serving Her Cleaning Solution Instead of Coffee"}}]}] ```