A Perth restaurant has copped a $40,000 fine after accidentally serving citronella instead of cranberry juice to two children.
Hannah Lemin, 12, and her sister Olivia, 11, were having dinner with their parents at Miky’s Italian Fusion restaurant in the Perth on June 2024, when the mix-up happened.
During dinner, the girls complained that their cranberry juice tasted like it had been “poisoned”.
“My daughters just went to gulp it down, and they both spat the cranberry juice out and said, ‘It’s poisoned,'” mum Michele Lemin told the ABC the day after the incident occurred.
“I said, ‘Don’t be silly,’ and took the glass, and I went to gulp it down and then spat it out.”
Her husband, Marcus Lemin ran to the front counter after smelling the liquid and demanded to see the bottle it came from.
He claimed that the staff member initially refused, telling him it was “just old cranberry juice”.
“He took the bottle [out of the fridge] and placed it under the counter,” he said.
“That’s when I sort of said, ‘No, you need to give me the bottle, I need to see what it is.'”
It was later discovered that a bartender at the restaurant had given the girls a pink-coloured citronella torch and lamp oil solution, used to repel and kill mosquitoes.
The girls were rushed to Perth Children’s Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
“My daughters’ … stomachs were burning, their fingers and hands were tingling,” Michele said.
“They had a headache … it was awful.”
Fortunately, the girls were treated and discharged a few hours later, with their mum saying, “we’re lucky that the children weren’t younger. If they were younger children that this happened to, I’d hate to think what would have happened.”
The incident sparked a Department of Health investigation and the business has since been shut down.
On Tuesday, the Perth Magistrates Court declared former business owner Michele Angiuli guilty of selling unsafe food and failing to exercise due diligence, as the restaurant did not seem to be appropriately managed or compliant in areas including ensuring staff had food safety certifications.
The former business owner no longer works in hospitality and declined to speak to the media.
Speaking after court, Marcus said that he hoped the fine “drives a bit more rigour in the industry and that we get to a point where maybe business owners in the hospitality industry understand the accountabilities they hold.”
Images: 9News
