Co-op milkshake had a ‘2007’ use-by date
Mum’s anger at ‘technical error’ on sweet treat
A DISAPPOINTED shopper has vowed never to buy a retail giant’s milkshakes again after a printing glitch indicated a carton had expired 13 years ago.
Mum-of-one Julie Young, of West Leigh, found the dodgy use-by date after she bought a litre of the Co-op’s own strawberry milk last Thursday.
The 56-year-old, a regular at the Co-op in St Alban’s Road, stopped in her tracks when she noticed it read February 28, 2007.
The disappointing realisation came as she went to pour herself a glass of the drink as a treat.
‘I bought it with some other bits because I always go to that Co-op to get little top-ups, like bread and sugar,’ she said.
‘I couldn’t believe it and I thought surely it can’t have been in the shop that long without anybody noticing it.
‘If anyone drank a milkshake that old they would be very, very ill – they could probably die.’
Having flagged up the gaffe with the Co-op helpline, Ms Young alleges she is not the only one to have been caught out.
‘A man on the phone said they had five or six calls about it and they were going to be calling the store and recalling the product,’ she said.
‘They are brilliant in that shop, but I had to report it because they can’t be making that mistake.’
While Julie initially feared the drink was more than a decade old, a spokeswoman for the Southern
Co-op said it was just a technical error.
‘Unfortunately, the date and time stamp have been printed too closely together,’ she said.
‘The product has an expiry date of 8.02.20 and a time stamp of 07:28.
‘We’re investigating this with the supplier to get it rectified.’
But Julie has vowed never to buy the sweet treat in the Co-op again.
She said: ‘They’re just trying to fob it off.
‘It should never have gone on the shelf – it obviously wasn’t checked.
‘What else has gone out without being checked?’
Ms Young said she was offered a refund for the £1.40 drink.
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