Few things are more comforting in life than a mug of hot cocoa. But that was not the case in Vicenza, Italy, where hot chocolate made by a 77-year-old grandmother sent three children and two adults to the emergency room. The likely cause? The packets of hot chocolate she used had expired in 1990.
As the Journal of Vicenza reported, 1990 was the year Italians delighted in hosting the World Cup – until their semi-final defeat to Argentina – and Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa.
The first person to fall ill with diarrhoea and vomiting was a visiting friend of the woman’s grandchildren, followed by the grandchildren themselves, then the woman’s son, and finally, the cocoa chef herself. The children were aged between eight and 12.
Accident or not, the police have charged the woman with causing injury through neglect, according to Corriere del Veneto.