More than 50 middle school students in Oregon were fed pretzels that were seasoned with crushed oven cleaner last fall, according to a newly filed lawsuit.
About 37 pretzels coated with Alto-Cham concentrated oven cleaner — an industrial-strength caustic chemical made with sodium hydroxide — were served during sixth-grade lunch at Fowler Middle School in Tigard, a suburb of Portland, on October 20, 2025, according to a nearly $1 million lawsuit filed last month.
More than 50 students ate all or part of the impacted pretzels, according to Tigard-Tualatin School District records obtained by Fox 12.
That and I believe the lye used in pretzels and other foods like lutefisk has to be food grade. I make soap so I use lye quite regularly, but to mistake it for salt when it looks NOTHING LIKE IT is a very special kind of incompetent. My god if I were one of the parents I would be inconsolably angry, that’s so fucking dangerous!
The sodium hydroxide used to clean ovens can be food grade as well. The storing it not in extremely obvious labeled containers is what likely got an understaffed(having subs) kitchen in trouble here.