A 67-year-old woman on Sunday was burned with chemically-filled tea at a Utah restaurant self-serve beverage station.

Jan Harding, mother of three, went to Dickey's Barbecue pit with her husband to spend time with friends.

Harding said she took a sip of the tea and immediately spit it out, claiming that she might have just drank acid.

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The tea was tested and it was revealed that it contained trace amounts of a poisonous cleaning solution. The tea was also found to contain lye, which is the basic component in making industrial drain and oven cleaners.

On Thursday, Harding was said to still be in critical condition days after the incident. She was confined in the burnt unit at a Salt Lake City hospital.

In a statement released by Harding's lawyer, Paxton Gymon, the woman is still unable to talk and fighting to live.   

Gymon added that according to the management of the restaurant and police investigators, an employee added the chemical to the tea container, thinking it was sugar.

''It's disturbing that this kind of toxic, poisonous material would be in the food prep area and somehow find its way into the iced tea vat,'' the lawyer said.

It was baffling that a potentially fatal mistake like the incident could happen, Gymon added.

South Jordan Police Cpl. Sam Winkler said that there was a big chance that the tragic incident was a case of an honest mistake, but the investigation is still ongoing.

The chemical lye, is a strong chemical solution of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, has a solid form of white crystal powder, which the investigators say can be mistaken for sugar.

If ingested, ''it would start dissolving your insides,'' University of Utah chemistry professor Tom Richmond said.

Based on the investigation and interviews conducted by the police, they were able to discover that Harding was the only victim of the tea poisoning.

She was the first customer to have drank the tea, which the restaurant crew discarded right after the incident.

Tagstea, chemical, burned customer