Chesham Bois: Mum discovers expired baby formula in store

Sophie Dale from Chesham Bois was left shocked after discovering the baby formula she had bought for her one-year-old daughter had expired.  

The mum-of-two claimed she had just bought the tub from Chesham Bois Londis store on Monday, December 4 when she was sat in her car and noticed the expiry date was more than two years ago.

She said: “Nearly two and a half years out of date is ridiculous.

“I checked it again and again. I kept checking it, because I didn’t want to be embarrassed and wrong and go back there. I took a picture and went back in.”

The baby formula label. (Image: Sophie Dale)

The discovery left her feeling uncomfortable over another tub she had used two weeks before but had already discarded, which had a lid covered in “thick dust." 

“It was really dusty but I didn’t think much of it. That kind of dust doesn’t come from just a week,” she claimed. 

READ MORE: Chesham: The Griffin pub to reopen before Christmas

She claimed she “no doubt fed her mouldy formula.”

When Sophie took the tub back on Monday, the staff member just “took the tub and gave me back cash” although she used a card to pay for the £9.99 tub. 

“All the tubs were out of date. I took one with me to the front and said all them are expired,” she claimed.

Mum-of-two Sophie said she may have fed her baby mouldy formula. (Image: Sophie Dale)

Sophie claimed the shop tried to shy away from responsibility, with a staff member saying the tub came from a manufacturer.

“But no, it’s their responsibility,” she said.

“In Tesco it costs £15 pounds. In my opinion it’s at reduced price because it’s out of date and you want it gone,” she alleged, which the owner of the store Halpal Singh Seghal denied. 

“Anything we reduce in price we put at the front. Three months ago it was ten pounds, so sometimes the old price stays on,” he alleged.

He said he wanted to apologise to Sophie over the ordeal, who he said is a regular customer.

“I don’t want to lose her as a customer.

“This doesn’t normally happen in our shop. Sometimes, when you’re buying the stuff from the supplier, we don’t check the date. This item is not possible to be two years out of date. Maybe the supplier gave it to us,” he claimed.

He said a human “mistake” could have happened when the tubs arrived from the supplier.

The corner shop has around 20,000 items and no centralised system to check items’ expiry date like Tesco or Morrisons, but staff have to check “everything individually,” he explained.

“Local shop is very hard to run, a lot of them are closing down. Electric prices are going up and rent is going up. We used to pay £10,000 a year, now it’s £25,000 as the landlord’s mortgage has gone up,” he added.

Since the Free Press contacted the store, Halpal has met with Sophie and paid her back, he claimed.