A two-year-old girl was served extra hot sauce instead of ketchup with her meal at a Greene King pub.
Little Haría started coughing and screaming after eating the sauce and "turned bright red", her mum Chanel Palmer said.
The woman had taken Haría and her brother Charlie, three, for a family meal at The Sherwood pub in Sheffield, South Yorks, and was shocked at her daughter's reaction when eating her food.
Due to some confusion, Haría was given a "hot hot hot sauce" rather than a plain tomato topping on a "build your own pasta" meal.
Chanel said the sauces were kept "side by side" in the same clear containers, which caused the mix-up.
The family became worried as they thought the girl was choking, but then realised her reaction was due to the spiciness of the sauce.
She said staff at the pub apologised for the incident, brought some milk for the child and gave the family a £20 gift card.
Chanel said: "We jumped up thinking she was choking and when we realised she wasn’t we wondered what was going on.
"My mum thought it might be the sauce so she tried it and her mouth was on fire.
"When I told the staff what had happened they brought some milk for Haría and gave us a £20 gift card.
"They said they’d just got the sauces mixed up, it was an accident and they were sorry.
"But when I asked how this could happen, it turned out the sauces were stored side by side in the same clear containers."
The night before the incident, Chanel had brought Haría to a walk-in health centre as her asthma had flared up.
She said this added to her worry when the youngster started coughing uncontrollably after eating the hot sauce.
Thankfully, the girl was fine after being given some medication, but Chanel has demanded an investigation to ensure similar incidents never happen again.
She added: "I wasn’t interested in getting a gift card, I wanted to ensure this was properly investigated so it doesn't happen again.
"There didn’t seem to be any consideration about how serious it could have been. What if they’d given nuts to someone with a nut allergy?”
A spokesperson for The Sherwood pub, a Hungry Horse chain owned by Greene King, said: “We have apologised to our customer for this error and are sorry for the understandable concern it caused for her family.
“We pride ourselves on our high standards and fortunately incidents like this are extremely rare.
“We are investigating how this happened to make sure it does not happen again.”
