A SUPERMARKET giant last night apologized to a woman who bought crisps from their store that were almost three years old.Natashia Chapman, whose partner is ace indoor bowls player 31-year-old Mark Royal who is ranked number 15 in the world, bought the Tesco's own brand of cheese crisps from the company's Stowmarket store.

By John Howard

A SUPERMARKET giant last night apologized to a woman who bought crisps from their store that were almost three years old.

Natashia Chapman, whose partner is ace indoor bowls player 31-year-old Mark Royal who is ranked number 15 in the world, bought the Tesco's own brand of cheese crisps from the company's Stowmarket store.

Ms Chapman, 24, of Combs Ford, Stowmarket, the partner of top indoor bowls player Mark Royal, was horrified by what she discovered when she opened a packet.

She said: “I'm not happy at all. I bought the crisps during a normal shopping trip, from the crisps aisle - they were reduced by 22p.

“When I went to eat some they smelt of nail varnish. I opened another packet, and that smelt even worse.

“They were nearly three years out of date, with a date of January 11 2003. They were a very funny colour - practically white.

“I would not want anyone else to have to have this happen to them. It's the health and safety risk that worries me.

“Trading Standards have come and taken them away to analyse. I'm OK, but I just fear what would have happened if my children had eaten them.

“Tesco's want customer loyalty. We shop there, and then we get nothing back, I have not even had an apology. It's poor.''

But a spokeswoman for Tesco's said: “This is a very unfortunate thing to happen and we apologise to Natashia Chapman.

“We have strict processes in place to prevent this sort of thing happening, but it seems that one of these processes may have broken down on this occasion.

“We have checked our crisp stock in the store and are satisfied that there are no other out-of-date packs on sale.

“We would very much like to speak to the customer to ascertain some further details of her purchase so that we can carry out our own investigation.''

The matter has been reported to Suffolk County Council's Trading Standards department and a spokeswoman said they were investigating the incident.