A newborn baby was hospitalised after drinking baby formula bought in a supermarket that turned out to be almost nine years out of date.
A court has heard it was a “mystery” how the product had remained on the shelf in a Dunnes Stores outlet for so long before being fed to the five-week-old child.
The retail giant has been ordered to pay €10,000 to charity to avoid a conviction after admitting it failed to immediately notify authorities that it sold baby food that was injurious to human health.
Dunnes Stores has also agreed to pay over €33,000 in legal and investigative costs after entering a guilty plea to the charge at Navan district court on Friday.
The court heard that a member of the public bought 13 bottles of Aptamil baby milk at the store on Trimgate Street in Navan on February 8 last year.
Two days later, the father was feeding the baby, who had digested between 50ml and 60ml before getting sick and refusing to drink any more.
The father noticed there was discolouring in the bottle and when the packaging was checked, it had a best before date of June 9, 2015. Another bottle had a best before date of February 3, 2024.
The baby was brought to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where it was kept overnight under observation, but didn’t require any treatment.
A doctor at the hospital contacted with Dunnes Stores in Navan the following day and informed them of the incident.
On February 14, 2024, a senior environmental health officer attended the Dunnes Stores branch and spoke to the deputy store manager, who was aware of the complaint.
A stock check had been performed, with eight bottles of baby formula found with a best-before date of March 3, 2024, and short dates of March 9, 2024. These were removed from the shelves.
On February 15, the store confirmed to the HSE that Dunnes Stores head office had been notified of the complaint made. An investigation was launched by the HSE and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), and a prosecution was brought under the European Communities (General Food Law) Regulations 2007.
On Friday, Dunnes Stores entered a guilty plea on a single count of failing to immediately inform the authority or the official agencies of any grounds for believing that a food it had placed on the market may be injurious to human health.
Counsel for Dunnes Stores Brian Gageby BL. Photo: Frank McGrath
Brian Gageby BL, defending, said it was an unusual case and a “mystery” to his clients of how the lone bottle of infant formula had been on the shelf for that period of time.
The court heard that at the time, regular three-month stock takes were carried out on baby food, and that products with a shelf life of shorter than four weeks would be removed.
Counsel said that Dunnes Stores had taken the matter extremely seriously and that monthly stock checks are now carried out of baby food products.
He said that the HSE and FSAI should have been informed immediately but weren’t and that the case “fell through the cracks”.
Mr Gageby said his client has no previous convictions and has 118 stores in the Republic of Ireland, employing around 17,000 people.
He told Judge Eirinn McKiernan that Dunnes Stores has also agreed to pay costs in the case, including over €8,000 in legal costs and more than €23,000 in investigation fees.
Mr Gageby said the company secretary, Tom Sheridan, was in court and that the company was prepared to make a sizeable contribution to charity.
Judge McKiernan directed Dunnes Stores to make a payment of €10,000, broken down to three separate groups – Barnardos, Foróige, and MCDAR.
The case is listed for mention again in four weeks’ time to ensure the donation and costs have been paid.