Gin Distillery Incorrectly Labels Bottles of Hand Sanitiser; Customer Consumes It & Falls Ill

An Australian gin distillery mistakenly labelled a bottle filled with hand sanitiser which caused a customer to become ill after drinking the substance.

From 5 to 7 June, bottles of hand sanitisers incorrectly labelled as “SS Casino Dry Gin” were on sale. A recall was then issued by Apollo Bay Distillery after nine bottles of hand sanitiser incorrectly labelled were sold at Great Ocean Road Brewhouse in Victoria state.

According to Food Standards Australia, the hand sanitisers contained glycerol and hydrogen peroxide which could cause injury or illness if consumed. Possible side effects include “nausea, headaches, dizziness, bloating, vomiting, thirst, and diarrhoea”.

Unfortunately, one customer became sick and required medication after drinking a glass of the hand sanitiser from the bottle which was labelled “SS Casino Dry Gin”, reported 7News Australia.

She believes her friend had purchased the bottle during the relevant time frame.

“Had one glass of this at lunchtime and had a really bad headache and felt nauseous about one hour after and had to take nausea tablets and Nurofen,” she wrote.

“Thought I was getting unwell, I had no idea until now. If it doesn’t taste right don’t drink it! Be careful!”

On 10 June, Apollo Bay Distillery took to Facebook to apologise for the mistake.

“We can now confirm we have recovered all incorrectly labelled bottles from the product safety recall we issued on Monday 8 June,” they wrote.

“We are very sorry this occurred. Rest assured we will be following up our procedures to ensure this does not occur again.”

“We’d like to thank those who were affected for being so understanding. We are in the process of fully refunding and providing a replacement product to those impacted.”

“Thank you to everyone who shared the recall, and the media for publicising it, as this enabled us to recover the products quickly.”

In view of the Covid-19 outbreak, many alcohol companies have started producing hand sanitisers instead, which of course, poses a risk for incorrectly labelled bottles like what happened with Apollo Bay Distillery.

Yikes! Remember, if it tastes bad, don’t drink it!

Also read: 30 People in Turkey Died After Drinking Pure Alcohol To Protect Themselves From Covid-19