A mum was appalled when she realised her newborn's first drink was out-of-date milk left on a supermarket's shelves.
Claire Gardner only realised the formula milk should not have been sold after feeding it to her hours-old daughter, Harriet.
The 34-year-old feared that the newborn, who was in the high dependency unit having stopped breathing during birth, might fall ill because of the drink.
After her midwife called the Silksworth Lane, Sunderland supermarket, Claire's mum went back to the Sainsbury's where she discovered all of the formula on display was out-of-date.
"We told the midwife who rang the paediatric nurses to tell them that a two hour baby had had out-of-date milk," Claire explained.
"The midwife then rang the Sainsbury's but they didn't seem too concerned.
"They didn't seem to understand what we were trying to say.
"The next day my mum went down to check that the milk had gone.
"The manager said he couldn't give us more because everything they had left was out-of-date.
"They offered us a £20 goodwill gesture, but that's not good enough."
Claire did not have any formula milk ready ahead of Harriet's birth because she had arrived early.
Her mum had nipped to the shops when the EE business saleswoman went into labour at 37 weeks.
Harriet had stopped breathing for several minutes during birth when she had got stuck, requiring midwives to use suction to pull her out.
With the birth safely over, Claire began the first feed.
"She was having her first bottle when my mum looked down and saw that the milk was out-of-date," she said.
"Harriet was born on 9 January. The milk was out-of-date on December 25."
Having not had any luck with the in-store manger, Claire wrote to Sainsbury's CEO Mike Coupe.
She received a response claiming that milk had been tested in a lab and was fine to drink.
The offer of compensation was reduced from £20 to £15.
Claire said: "What if all these babies had been given the milk and not known it was out-of-date?"
A spokesperson for Aptamil said: "We were sorry to hear about Claire’s experience, especially with such a young baby, and we hope that little Harriet is doing well now.
"We’d like to reassure parents that all our formula products go through extensive testing and quality checks before they leave our factory and are supplied to retailers with a long shelf life.
"We are always here for parents if they have any concerns about their baby’s formula – all our contact details can be found on www.Aptaclub.co.uk"
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said, “We have apologised to Claire for her experience.
"As soon as this was brought to our attention the store made sure no other formula milk products are beyond their best before date.”
