Chocolate muffins and a dry fruit bun, costing Rs 25, gave Navtej Singh, a Mohali resident, a tough time as his wife landed in hospital with food poisoning after consuming them.

Four months later, he was compensated with Rs 5,000 by the consumer forum and the retail outlet was held guilty for adopting unfair trade practices as it had sold the expired food items.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum directed ‘More’ in Sector 27 to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation and refund Rs 25 charged from the complainant.

President of the forum, Jagroop Singh Mahal, held, “The retail outlet cannot evade the requirement of law by mentioning “best before” in place of the “date of expiry”. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the date February 1, 2009 being mentioned against “best before” is the date of expiry. The retailer sold the food item on February 2, 2009 after the expiry date and is guilty of unfair tradepractice”.

Navtej Singh had moved the consumer forum accusing the retailer of selling “expired products” though owners of ‘More’ denied the allegations.

In his complaint, Navtej said he had purchased a packet of Prime Time dry fruit bun and Prime Time chocolate muffins on February 2, 2009 from the Sector 27-based outlet.

“On the same day at about 9 pm, my wife Reet consumed the chocolate muffin and soon started vomiting and had an upset stomach. Next morning, we took her to the general hospital in Sector 16 where she was diagnosed to have food poisoning,” the complaint reads.

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