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5 fall sick after drinking bleach-laced water at Mister Donut store in Osaka

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That is a very scary incident. There is no check list on safety procedures when toxic element is used inside a fast food joint?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

First comes Bleach, then comes....Nevermind.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Why is this news.. this is all that you guys have to report.. employee mistakes.. I guess life is good in Japan..

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

Mister Donut should operate their outlets here themselves and not rely on a professional cleaning company (with lots of bleaches sitting around lol) that is Japanese. Too many American companies here lose out on expansion potential here by depending on Japanese 'partners' who merely want the know- how and the name. It's a very old story and the Americans have yet to learn.

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

It's always good when a cleaning company runs a food establishment.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

News flash for CHAMADE: "Mister Donut" has all but disappeared from the U.S. I think they are down to three franchises. They were bought out by Dunkin' Donuts and most stores converted to that brand. Duskin bought the right to the name in Japan but there is otherwise no connection to Mister Donut in America.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Knox Harrington wrote:

It's always good when a cleaning company runs a food establishment.

Um, apparently not always.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wonder about the victims that left and then went to the hospital on their own. Did they not realize that something was wrong with the "water" and complain? I guess its hard to complain about something that's free, but still, it had to be pretty disgusting...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This will hurt the company's reputation. To recover from this, it'll have to change its name. Perhaps changing the name to Mrs. Donut might work.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

SauloJpnMar. 26, 2013 - 07:37AM JST

There is no check list on safety procedures when toxic element is used inside a fast food joint?

Maybe there is, maybe there isn't, but a checklist is only as good as the person or people who use it. Hate to state the obvious, but the right thing to do from here on in would be to change all the pots to ones that can be hand or machine washed with dish detergent..... and hand out free donuts for a month!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

WHAT a stupid, stupid MISTAKE! I hope nobody was hurt too much! My wife and kids love Mr.Donuts! But this will make me think twice before going there.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

No hygiene issues, then..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Simple solution, after treating any eating vessel of any type turn it upside down after cleaning, rinsing.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

First of all they should not be serving water that has set out all night. The bleach was put in after closing. The container should have been emptied and washed upon opening. Couldn't the employee smell the chlorine? For there to be enough chlorine to make you sick, it has to be at a level you can smell.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Kent McgrawMar. 26, 2013 - 02:30PM JST Couldn't the employee smell the chlorine? For there to be enough chlorine to make you sick, it has to be at a level you can smell.

This has me confused as well. Chlorine is NOT a smell that anyone could miss, even if you have a cold. If the level was high enough for people to immediately need transporting to hospital then it must have been mighty high, since it takes a very high level of chlorine for it to do any harm. I mean for goodness sakes the stuff is used in pretty high concentrations to clean baby's bottles.

I'm not so down on the employee in this regard, they may have been cleaning up and had an open bottle of bleach next to them, and so missed it, but the customers.... well, if I raised a glass of water to my face to drink and was smacked in the face by the smell of chlorine my next step would NOT be to swallow it down happily.

... and perhaps it had just been one customer with a severe cold and blocked nose I might get it, but 5 customers? No, this is all just too much to believe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Chlorine is NOT a smell that anyone could miss,

The next day, most of the smell is gone. The customers probably felt an after-taste, but too late as they had already drunk some. That kind of accident is not uncommon, but most times it's one or two persons that got sick at home and they don't make the link with improperly rinsed vessel.

it takes a very high level of chlorine for it to do any harm.

No. And much less than what was thought a few decades ago.

I mean for goodness sakes the stuff is used in pretty high concentrations to clean baby's bottles.

Any idiot can have a baby, so some people may do that. That should never be done.

First of all they should not be serving water that has set out all night.

They should not use bleach to clean vessel. It has been proved not more efficient than the common dish washing liquids that are less toxic. If they want "cleaner" , they can use hot water, dishwashers. Even for cleaning the place and laundry, the use of bleach is borderline (or it should be done when all staff wear gloves and masks). There are safer alternatives.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

combinibento said it best - thanks a lot foe the chuckle !

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Chlorine mixed with water rapidly evaporates into the air - so much so that chlorinated tap water becomes safe to use in tropical fish tanks after only sitting exposed to air for an hour. If a pitcher of bleach water was left overnight, I doubt there was much (if any) chlorine odor remaining for the customers to smell.

As for the use of chlorine in the pitcher, I highly doubt it was there to "clean" the pitcher and more likely was there as a sanitizing agent. Regardless, standard procedures should have had all employees dump and rinse-out all containers prior to the first use in the morning. That would have prevented this dangerous situation.

Why is this news.. this is all that you guys have to report.. employee mistakes.. I guess life is good in Japan..

It's news because this "employee mistake" had potentially fatal consequences and sickened five customers. The only people who would NOT want this to be news are those with financial ties to Duskin Co.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Cos, the next day the smell is still there, Maybe you do not realize that you drink chlorine everyday that you drink water from the tap. The proper amount amount of chlorine to disinfect is a 10% solution and then once rinsed it is so diluted that it does not harm. I do not know where you get your information but if you read about chlorine and if you have a sense of smell, you will know that what you said is wrong. Fadamore is correct.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

First the donuts are mostly loaded with sugars.. white, artificial ones, and other sweeteners.. that wll give you diabetes in the long run.. it will kill you softly and sweetly.. then they mistakenly serve that bleach laced water...perfect lethal combination..

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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