DONNA Patston thought the baby food she was feeding her daughter looked strange – but little did she suspect it would be more than two years out of date.

DONNA Patston thought the baby food she was feeding her daughter looked strange – but little did she suspect it would be more than two years out of date.

Miss Patston, 24, of Ipswich's Kipling Road, was giving her young daughter an early dinner of Hipp Organic lamb and vegetable baby food.

It was the same brand she always used and she had only bought the food from Ipswich's Asda, in Goddard Road, on Monday .

But as she fed five-month-old Caitlin the first spoon, Miss Patston thought the mixture looked a little more watery than usual.

She was left flabbergasted when she checked the best before date and saw it read April 2001.

Miss Patston said: "As I fed Caitlin the first spoon, I thought it didn't look quite right. But I don't know what made me check the best before date – I suppose it must have been sixth sense.

"I felt disgusted and couldn't believe it. I thought I must have read it wrong. "I telephoned Asda straight away as I couldn't bear the thought of other babies eating two-year-old lamb.

"Caitlin is fine – luckily I only gave her one spoonful. I checked the other jars I had and they were all right. It must have been a one-off fluke."

Asda staff checked the rest of their baby food stocks and said that all their other baby food jars were not out-of-date.

Ms Patston received a refund and £20 as a goodwill gesture

A spokesman for Asda said: "Having spoken to our nutritionist we believe the product would not have been dangerous to eat even though it was out of date.

"But we would like to apologise unreservedly to Ms Patston and her family.

"We have launched a full investigation to try and understand how an out-of-date product could have found its way onto our shelves.

"We are at a loss to explain how this could have happened as incidents like this are extremely rare. We will, however, leave no stone unturned in our investigation."