Grandmother accidentally poisons family with long expired drink

Italy:  A grandmother accidentally poisoned her family by making them hot chocolate that was 25 years out of date.

The 77-year-old woman, named only as Mrs Rosetta, poisoned herself, her partner, their son, grandchildren and one of their friends after making the drink, the Mail Online reports.

Shortly afterwards, the family from Vicenza in northern Italy were taken to hospital with stomach upsets and vomiting, with one of the youngsters being kept in for 20 days.

Authorities traced the sickness to the sachets and discovered the drink had expired in 1990, according to Il Giornale Di Vicenza.

It is thought that Mrs Rosetta bought the drink some time in the late 80s, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square protests, and while Margaret Thatcher was still Prime Minister.

It had then been gathering dust at the bottom of her larder until one of her grandchildren asked for it to drink.

Her husband began suffering from vomiting and a stomach upset around an hour after drinking the chocolate, followed by herself, the children, and finally her son, Il Mattino reports.

The grandmother has been charged with causing injury, with a file passed to prosecutors for consideration, it has been reported.

Hot chocolate sachets often contain powdered milk, which can go off after long periods.

It is prone to curdling over long periods if exposed to heat or moisture, or if the packaging is torn.