Havant mum's anger after child's fruit drink '˜burns throat' of son

Harry Crocker, four, opened a Fruit Shoot from a packet of 48 his mother had bought, and gulped it down.

But he spat out the foul-tasting liquid and when mum Lauren Clift tasted it she said it was as if she was drinking cleaning fluid.

A short while later Harry began to complain of a burning in his throat.

Miss Clift, of Rectory Road, Langstone, said: ‘The first time my little boy drank it he said: “Mummy, that’s disgusting”.

‘He said his throat was burning and I remembered I’d read somewhere that it happened to another child and it was some sort of fungal thing. I went into the garage and went through all the bottles in the pack of 48 I’d bought.

‘There was one other bottle in there that had the same problem. Britvic say the problem is weather-related but, if that was the case, why would just one other bottle, in the middle of a pack kept in a freezing cold garage, be affected?

‘Surely if they are all exposed to the same temperature they would all have the same problem? The smell was absolutely horrific.’

The incident comes days after an 11-year-old girl from Kent was rushed to hospital suffering from a burning in her throat after she drank a Fruit Shoot.

Her mother tried the drink and she also fell ill. Harry has had a hacking cough since drinking the Fruit Shoot on Tuesday. Miss Clift said his GP has diagnosed him with an ‘agitated throat’.

She has sent one of the bottles to Britvic for testing but kept the other to have independently tested.

Miss Clift added: ‘My main issue is there is a need to let parents know there are some dodgy ones. But the man I spoke to at Britvic said they would not do that as it would scare their customers. But that’s not fair. These are given out with children’s meals in lots of restaurants and parents put them in lunch boxes.’

A spokesman for Britvic said: ‘The quality and safety of our products is of the utmost importance to us and we take all complaints extremely seriously.

‘We are in touch with Ms Clift and have received a sample, which we are currently analysing in our laboratory.

‘We will confirm the results to Ms Clift as soon as possible.’