Mum warns parents after her daughter was hospitalised after eating Cow & Gate baby food from Tesco
Michelle Brooks says the 60p apple and mango pudding was riddled with mould... despite having an expiration date of 2018
A MUM has told of her horror after her five-month-old daughter was hospitalised by mouldy baby food – which had an expiry date of 2018.
Mum-of-two Michelle Brooks has slammed Cow & Gate after the 60p pot of apple and mango pudding gave daughter Mia a bacterial infection on September 22.
The 22-year-old, who is from Rye, East Sussex, was shocked to discover the tot’s meal was riddled with mould – after Mia had already eaten three quarters of the pot.
Mia got sick and kept growing more ill throughout the day, forcing her mum to call an ambulance at 4.30pm.
The paramedic sat with Mia for half an hour and, when she still hadn’t recovered a week later, Michelle drove to the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.
The tot was kept in overnight, and her mum claims she will never buy from Cow & Gate again.
Full-time mum Michelle said: “I thought I’d give Mia a quick pudding, but I had no idea it would turn into such a nightmare. I’ve always used Cow & Gate, it was a brand I trusted.
“I opened the jar and everything was normal. When Mia took her first bite she made a sour face, but she always does that so I didn’t think anything of it.
“Two hours later, she was having bad nappies and being sick, so I called an ambulance and had a look at the food.
“I gave the bottom of it a stir, and up came all this disgusting green mould. It was vile.”
Michelle opened another jar, apple and strawberry flavoured, the next day and that was also packed full of mould.
But when Michelle, who also has a three-year-old daughter called Bridget, complained to Cow and Gate they said the pots probably got damaged on the journey home.
Michelle said: “I cannot stress enough, the jar was in mint condition when I bought it from Tesco. It even made that popping noise.
“But it could be a factory problem and I would want people to know, there could be thousands of jars that are mouldy.”
Michelle says doctors think Mia caught a bacterial infection from the mould.
She added: “I will never buy anything from Cow & Gate again, I am utterly disgusted.”
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A spokesperson for Cow & Gate maintains that all the safety checks and tests were correctly operating at the time that the jars were produced, and believe it is an isolated incident.
She added: “The safety and quality of our baby foods is our top priority.
“We were very concerned to hear that Baby Brooks has been unwell and pleased to hear that she is better.
“Our jar baby foods are vacuum sealed and sterilised in our factory.
“On occasion, if the lid or jar becomes damaged, the seal can break; allowing air to enter the jar and mould can grow. This could happen when the jar is being transported or stored.
“We take every complaint very seriously. Our factory records indicate that all our safety checks and tests were correctly operating at the time the jar was produced.
“This isolated incident and we have not received any other complaints about either batch of baby food.
“As Ms Brooks reported two separate incidents of mould, we believe it most likely that the jars were damaged after they were filled and sealed at our factory.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “There’s nothing more important to us than the safety of our customers, so when this incident was brought to our attention we quickly removed the branded product from this store.
“We have asked our supplier to investigate and update Ms Brooks with their findings.”