One thing we should all do before consuming anything that includes cocoa, is to check its expiry date because who knows, it might've been expired years ago. Apparently, that can be quite dangerous.
That's what happened with an Italian grandmother when she prepared a hot chocolate drink for herself and three other children. Everything seemed great, except the fact that the chocolate she was using, had expired 15 years ago in 1990.
Mrs Rosetta, the 77 year-old woman wanted to treat her children and their friend with a chocolate milkshake. And that's when should found the expired sachets at home and mixed them for the treat.
She made one for herself too and all of them enjoyed the drink. It was only after the treat when they started to feel the effects of it. They starting feeling sick and had diarrhea. Soon after that, the whole group had to be hospitalized for food poisoning symptoms, according to the Grub Street.
The suspicions turned towards the hot chocolate everyone had consumed. And it wasn't until the grandmother returned home to find out that the expiry date of the chocolate sachets was 5th June 1990. Mrs Rosetta said that she had brought the sachets earlier in the 1980s, but then forgot to use them as they were hidden in the bottom of a cupboard.
The children who were hospitalized were aged between 8 to 12 and they had to remain in the hospital for almost three weeks.
It is interesting to think that the expiry date of the hot chocolate was in the month when Italy hosted the start of the World Cup, the Berlin was destroyed, the United States and Russia signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production, and J.K Rowling had finished writing the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
There aren't any charges pressed on Mrs Rosetta, but prosecutors are considering to do it.
