A MAN from Trowbridge is taking on Aldi after he ate a Spicy Chorizo & Chilli Cheddar Rollito from his local store on Bradley Road which he believes gave him food poisoning.

Andrew Cope found that the package had no best before or use by date.

Mr Cope finds the £20 ‘goodwill gesture’ he is being offered ‘laughable’ and has asked the company to reconsider.

Initially, the supermarket mishap was discovered by chance.

Mr Cope said: “I was quite ill for about six to eight hours, and just by chance my wife picked the packaging up out of the bin and said -’this has got no date on it’.”

Although Aldi has acknowledged the incident, Mr Cope is so far unsatisfied with the response.

He added: “I’ve gone down the route of saying, hang on a minute, you’re in breach of UK law. UK requirements say you must have a use-by or best before date on food items. So we’ve just been going back and forth with it.

“This twenty-pound gesture, I don’t want to say I’ve laughed at it, but I don’t think personally they’ve taken it seriously enough.

“There are cases where retailers have faced twenty-thousand pound fines, and there’s actually a custodial sentence of two years if proven guilty, so twenty pounds out of their pocket is laughable. It’s pitiful.”

In an email reply to his complaint from the company, where he sent pictures of the missing date, he was told: “We are sorry to hear that the product is not as it should be with the date stamp missing, which is clear from your images.

“I have been in contact with the store manager who has checked the remaining two cases of individual packs, and I can confirm that they carry the use by date 9/12/2021.

“The pack purchased on Saturday is part of the same batch.”

The gesture which Mr Cope has turned down was offered with the understanding that he may also want to contact Trading Standards, and Aldi has has not yet confirmed whether it will be offering any more compensation.

The email also stated: “On this occasion, we would like to offer you a gesture of goodwill in the form of a £20 Aldi voucher.”

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An Aldi spokesperson told the Times: “We are currently investigating this isolated incident with our supplier. We have apologised to Mr Cope that, on this occasion, our usual high standards were not met.”

Cllr Ashley O’Neill, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection, said: “We are aware of this complaint, that appears to be related to an isolated incident. We made contact with the complainant and the Aldi store in question to find out more.

“Our investigating officer visited the store and found that all products were appropriately coded and in date, and the complainant is aware that the symptoms attributed to the product could not be evidentially linked without further microbiological testing.

“Aldi has a Primary Authority partnership with South Cambridgeshire Council who provide regulatory advice to the company. As is usual in these circumstances, the matter was referred to them to see if there have been similar complaints about the product. Their findings concluded that there have been no other complaints and no issues regarding the product and quality of checks at the manufacturing facility.

“We would always advise consumers to check for dates on short life chilled products before consuming them.”