A supermarket shopper is outraged after spending £10 on rump steak which he believes contributed to his wife feeling ill.
Former councillor Terry Lawton, told Teesside Live his wife had diarrhoea not long after consuming what they had believed to be good quality meat bought at Morrisons.
The steak, purchased from the Berwick Hills, Middlesborough branch, was said to be "rotten" before the use by date had passed.
"I had some yesterday and it stunk to high heaven", Terry, 66, said.
"It's rump steak which you expect to be decent.
"My wife was poorly, she was ill with diarrhoea, we never thought anymore about it until we went to the fridge and saw the state of it."
Terry went back to the store to complain and was offered a replacement. A manager explained the meat was bought from an external company. But defiant Terry decided to turn down the offer and bought his steak from nearby competitor Sainsbury's.
Terry said the steak was bought either last Thursday or Friday and had a use by date of January 15.
But he says it had started to go bad before then.
His wife had consumed some and later became ill, he said.
"I said it's a disgrace," he added.
"This can't be right.
"You look at it and you think you can't eat that - it stinks."
He added that his partner, council worker, Noeline, 64, has recently been off work after an operation and the illness has been a bit of a set back.
A Morrisons spokeswoman said the store did offer Terry a refund or replacement when the matter was brought to light.
She said: "We explained to Mr Lawton that the vacuum packaging may have become accidentally pierced which could shorten the life of the product, bought one week ago.
"We offered the customer a refund, a free product replacement, and travel expenses to and from the store."
For the latest news in and around Bristol, visit and bookmark Bristol Live's homepage.
You can follow us on Twitter here and on Facebook here and here.
You can also join our traffic and travel, crime and parenting Facebook groups.
