A Degreaser Was Mistaken for Margarita Sugar at a Chili’s. The Missing Safeguard Was a Label

The container did not look dangerous. It held white granules, it sat in a bar, and bars keep white granules for the rims of glasses. According to the Foothills Health District, that is how a pressure-washing degreaser ended up on a margarita station in Forest City, North Carolina, on 28 October, and how customers who ordered a drink came away with chemical burns around their mouths.

The reporting so far does not name the product, the contractor or anyone involved, and it does not say which rule, if any, the district found broken. We do not fill those gaps. Investigators are the ones who assign fault. This article sets out what the published food-safety and workplace rules say about a container like this one, why a granular alkaline cleaner gives no visual or smell cue that it is not sugar, and the short list of habits those rules are built around. Facts about the incident are from local reporting of health-district statements; the chemistry figures are from safety data sheets; where a number is our own arithmetic, we say so.

What happened at the Forest City Chili’s?

A cleaning chemical brought in for outdoor work reached the bar in a container with no label, and was used as sugar. The table puts the reported events in order, each attributed to the outlet that carried it. Outlets differ slightly on the count of customers; we give the health district’s figures as reported.

Chili’s told Fox News Digital: “We are aware of an isolated incident at our restaurant in Forest City, North Carolina that resulted in injuries to two of our guests and Team Members.” The company said it took immediate action to support those affected and is investigating. No report we found identifies the degreaser’s brand or ingredients, so nothing below says what it was.

Why can’t you tell a granular degreaser from sugar by looking?

Because there is nothing to see. Many heavy-duty powdered cleaners are built on alkaline salts, and the common ones are white, crystalline and odorless, the same three words that describe table sugar. The table is taken from the safety data sheets of the four white granular alkaline cleaners Alliance Chemical sells. It is not a claim about what was in the Forest City container; it shows what the category looks like on paper.

Of the properties a person can check by eye, nose or hand, none separates these products from sugar. The pH column does, and it is invisible. pH is logarithmic: each whole unit is a tenfold change in hydrogen-ion concentration. On our arithmetic, a solution at pH 12 carries one hundred thousand times the hydroxide-ion concentration of neutral water at pH 7, and a solution at pH 14 carries ten million times. Sugar is neither an acid nor a base, so it barely moves the pH of a drink. A pH strip would show the difference in seconds; a glance, a sniff or a pour shows none.

Two further properties make granular alkalis easy to mistake in a kitchen. They dissolve readily in water, so they vanish into a wet rim or a mixed drink without leaving grit, and trisodium phosphate is hygroscopic, so it clumps in humid air much as sugar does. Neither property is a warning sign to anyone who does not already know what is in the container.

What does the FDA Food Code say about an unlabeled container?

That it should not exist. The FDA Food Code is the model rule that state and local health departments adopt for restaurants; North Carolina incorporates it by reference in its food establishment rules, 15A NCAC 18A .2650. Chapter 7, “Poisonous or Toxic Materials,” covers cleaners, and four of its provisions map onto the reported sequence one by one. The wording below is from the 2022 edition.

The Food Code’s own annex explains why the sentence is there. Working containers get carried to wherever a cleaner is used and then left in different places around the building, and labeling them with the common name “helps prevent the dangerous misuse of the contents.” The annex was describing the Forest City sequence before it happened.

The letters matter to an inspector. A P (priority) item is one that directly controls a hazard. A Pf (priority foundation) item is, in the Code’s words, one that “supports, facilitates or enables one or more PRIORITY ITEMS,” and the Code lists labeling among its examples. In plain terms, the label is the step every later safeguard depends on: the person stocking the bar cannot keep a cleaner away from the sugar if nothing says it is a cleaner.

What does OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard add?

The same rule, written for the people handling the chemical rather than for the food. OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200, applies to any workplace with hazardous chemicals, restaurants included, and paragraph (f)(6) requires that “each container of hazardous chemicals in the workplace is labeled, tagged or marked” with either the full shipped-container label or, at minimum, the “Product identifier and words, pictures, symbols, or combination thereof, which provide at least general information regarding the hazards of the chemicals.”

There is one well-known exemption, and it is narrow. Under (f)(8), an employer is not required to label portable containers into which chemicals are transferred from labeled containers “and which are intended only for the immediate use of the employee who performs the transfer.”

Read the clause word by word and it carries three conditions: one person, that person’s own use, and right away. A scoop decanted into a bucket for the job in hand fits. A container that is filled, set down and left for someone else to find the next day is the case the exemption was written to exclude; once it outlives the shift or changes hands, it needs a label. We draw no conclusion about the Forest City case, where investigators have not published findings; the clause is quoted so a manager can test their own routine against it.

The standard also anticipates outside crews. Paragraph (e)(2), on multi-employer workplaces, covers employers who use or store chemicals where “the employees of other employer(s) may be exposed (for example, employees of a construction contractor working on-site),” and requires a hazard communication program that includes the methods for giving the other employer access to safety data sheets, informing it of precautionary measures, and informing it “of the labeling system used in the workplace.” A contractor’s chemicals and a host’s chemicals meet on site, and the rule asks both sides to know what the other has brought.

Five habits the rules are built around

None of these is new, and none costs more than a marker and a shelf. Each traces to a provision quoted above.

1. Label at the moment of transfer, not later. The common name at minimum (Food Code §7-102.11); the product identifier and hazard words for OSHA (f)(6). A strip of tape and a marker satisfies the spirit; a printed secondary-container label with the signal word and pictogram copied from SDS Section 2 is better.
2. Keep the original package when you can. A container that never leaves its labeled bag or pail cannot lose its identity (OSHA (f)(9)).
3. Agree with contractors what comes in and what leaves. Exterior-cleaning chemicals belong to the exterior job. The Food Code allows only the toxic materials a food establishment needs for its own operation and maintenance (§7-202.11), and OSHA (e)(2) expects the host and the contractor to share SDSes and labeling practice.
4. Store cleaners apart from, and never above, food stock. Separation by spacing or partitioning is a priority item (§7-201.11). A bar back that holds sugar, salt and garnish is the wrong shelf for any white powder that is not one of those.
5. Never use a food container for a chemical, or the reverse. The Food Code prohibits putting food in a container that once held a toxic material (§7-203.11); the opposite direction is how a cleaner comes to look like an ingredient.

What this means on a specification

For a buyer, the practical work is getting the right words onto the working container. Every one of those words is already on the safety data sheet. The table shows where to find each element on an SDS in the standard 16-section format.

Our guide to decoding chemical labels explains each GHS pictogram and signal word, and our 16-section SDS guide walks through the sheet line by line.

A note on sourcing. The Forest City reporting describes a degreaser supplied by a contractor; officials have not named the product or its maker, and this article makes no claim about ours or about anyone else’s. The four products in the SDS table are listed because they are the white granular alkaline cleaners we sell and their sheets are public, not because any of them is connected to this incident.

Common questions

What chemical was in the Chili’s margaritas?

Health officials described it only as a “granulated degreasing chemical” supplied by a contractor who was power-washing the building’s exterior. No report we found names the product or its ingredients, and we do not guess. Many powdered heavy-duty degreasers are based on alkaline salts, which are white, crystalline and odorless.

Why did the degreaser look like sugar?

White granular alkaline cleaners and table sugar share appearance, texture and lack of odor. On the safety data sheets of four such cleaners we sell, appearance reads “white crystalline powder” or “flakes” and odor reads “odorless.” The difference is chemical, pH 11.2 to about 14, and invisible without a test.

Does the FDA Food Code require cleaning chemicals to be labeled?

Yes. Section 7-102.11 of the 2022 Food Code says working containers of cleaners taken from bulk supplies “shall be clearly and individually identified with the common name of the material.” It is a priority foundation item. North Carolina incorporates the Food Code by reference in 15A NCAC 18A .2650.

Does OSHA require labels on spray bottles and secondary containers?

Generally yes. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200(f)(6) requires each container of hazardous chemicals in the workplace to carry a product identifier and general hazard information. The (f)(8) exemption covers only a portable container filled from a labeled one for the immediate use of the employee who performs the transfer.

What should a restaurant do when a contractor brings chemicals on site?

Agree in advance what the contractor brings, where it is kept and that it leaves with the crew. The Food Code allows in a food establishment only the toxic materials its own operation needs, and OSHA’s multi-employer paragraph (e)(2) expects both employers to share safety data sheets, precautions and the labeling system used on site.

How do you label a secondary chemical container?

Copy the product identifier from SDS Section 1 and the signal word, hazard statements and pictograms from Section 2 onto a durable label, in English, and apply it as the container is filled. At minimum the Food Code asks for the common name; OSHA asks for the identifier plus general hazard information.

References & Authoritative Sources

Incident facts are from local news reporting of Foothills Health District statements and the company’s statement. Rule text is quoted from the FDA Food Code 2022 and 29 CFR 1910.1200. Product properties are from Alliance Chemical safety data sheets. pH ratios are our arithmetic.

1. Three NC Chili’s customers treated for chemical burns after margarita mix-up — WRAL, 30 October 2026. Unlabeled container; permit suspended and reinstated 29 October.
2. Customers experience chemical burns from margaritas at NC Chili’s, health officials say — FOX Carolina, 29 October 2026. The contractor, the container and the sequence.
3. Customers suffer chemical burns after drinking margaritas at a NC Chili’s, officials say — WBTV, 30 October 2026.
4. Margarita mix-up at North Carolina Chili’s leaves customers with chemical burns — FOX 32 Chicago. Company statement to Fox News Digital.
5. Food Code 2022 — U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Chapter 7, §7-102.11, §7-201.11, §7-202.11, §7-203.11; Annex 3 rationale; definition of priority foundation item.
6. 29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication — Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Paragraphs (e)(2), (f)(6), (f)(8), (f)(9).
7. 15A NCAC 18A .2650–.2676, Food Protection and Sanitation of Food Establishments — North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Incorporation of the FDA Food Code by reference.
8. Safety Data Sheet: Sodium Hydroxide Flakes — Alliance Chemical. Sections 2 and 9.
9. Safety Data Sheet: Potassium Hydroxide — Alliance Chemical. Sections 2 and 9.
10. Safety Data Sheet: Trisodium Phosphate Dodecahydrate — Alliance Chemical. Sections 2 and 9.
11. Safety Data Sheet: Soda Ash — Alliance Chemical. Sections 2 and 9.

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