Show-cause notice to Gurugram cafe where 5 fell ill after having mouth freshener with dry ice

Gurugram: The Gurugram district food safety officer has issued a show-cause notice to the La Forestta cafe-cum-restaurant, where five people were allegedly served dry ice instead of a mouth freshener, officials said on Wednesday.

The notice issued on Tuesday asked the eatery to reply within 15 days why its licence should not be cancelled or suspended in the wake of the incident, they said.

"You are hereby directed to provide a complete list of food articles that were served on that day to the consumers and to inform why and how the incident took place... it appears that you are not complying with the hygienic conditions as proposed in the FSS Act and there has been serious negligence on your part regarding maintaining of food safety," the notice read.

The manager of the restaurant located in Sector 90 was arrested on Tuesday.

The five diners, who were friends, vomited and suffered from bleeding in the mouth after consuming the dry ice mixed in the mouth freshener mix served to them in an apparent mix-up at the eatery. According to the complaint lodged by one of them, they had gone to the La Forestta restaurant on the night of March 3.

A video of the incident, which has gone viral on social media, showed the five friends purportedly vomiting blood. Police said earlier that two of the five people were still hospitalised.

Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide, a cooling agent that is highly toxic when ingested.