Hawaii preschool students mistakenly served Pine-Sol instead of apple juice

An “unfortunate” mix-up at a Hawaii preschool last week resulted in three students drinking Pine-Sol instead of apple juice during snack time.

Three girls, a 4-year-old and two 5-year-olds, were mistakenly given the yellow-hued cleaning product by a classroom assistant at the Kilohana United Methodist Church Preschool in Honolulu Tuesday, according to Hawaii News Now.

An investigation by the state Health Department reportedly found that the assistant was prepping dry crackers and juice for the students’ morning snack when she accidentally grabbed the Pine-Sol bottle from a kitchen cleaning cart and brought it back to the classroom.

The cart did not contain any other food supplies – just a garbage can and other cleaning products – and the Pine-Sol label was properly labeled.

The pupils had several sips of the cleaning fluid before a teacher got a whiff of the liquid and quickly realized it was not apple juice.

Paramedics were called, and the students were treated at the school.

Parents were reportedly notified of the “unfortunate” incident in an email from Kilohana, who said it would look into the way it handles snack time to make sure nothing similar ever happens again, and that it will also put the staff through mandatory training.

"I think it's extremely terrifying. It's very, very scary, but it's hard for me or any of the people that I've spoken to to understand how it happened in the first place," parent Turina Lovelin told KHON.