Ramsbottom resident found ‘rubbery’ substance in Tesco milk

Angela Coote said she was left “traumatised” after finding what she described as a thick, rubbery lump in a freshly opened bottle of Tesco semi-skimmed milk.

The incident prompted Angela to share photographs of the substance on a local Facebook group, where her post quickly attracted hundreds of reactions and comments from concerned residents.

In the post, Angela wrote: “Sincere apologies for the gross pics but I’m traumatised!

“Made a coffee and noticed a few bits floating on top and thought, it’ll just be a bit of milk skin, it’s a freshly opened bottle and I proceeded to drink it.

“Halfway down to my horror there was a thick solid blob of the gunk in the pic.

“(Some’s still in the bin, I fished some back out).

“I know the bottle is dated today but I’ve just made another brew and the same gunk is starting to form!

“What the hell is it?

“Even if it’s on the turn I’ve never seen anything like it.

“It’s almost rubbery in texture.

“Can anyone shed any light on this please as I try not to throw up?!”

The photographs showed several brown, solid-looking pieces removed from the drink alongside the bottle of milk used to make the coffee.

Angela told The Bury Times she initially began trying to contact Trading Standards for advice and preserved samples of both the milk and the mystery substance in the hope that they could be tested.

She explained that the milk had been ordered through Tesco’s rapid delivery service, Whoosh, and, because she lives in Ramsbottom, she was unsure which branch the order had originated from.

The resident said she was particularly frustrated by what she felt was a lack of urgency from Tesco after reporting the issue.

She said: “I’m pretty disgusted to be honest that not one Tesco representative has tried to ring to ask whether I’ve had any ill effects from it or whether anyone besides myself has consumed any and if so how they are.

“Customer Care at it’s best.”

Angela also questioned why arrangements had not been made to collect the milk and substance sooner for investigation, given her concerns about whether it could potentially be harmful.

After making further enquiries, Angela took the milk to Tesco, with staff at the Ramsbottom branch agreeing to accept the product and send it to the relevant department for investigation.

She said the store refunded the cost of the milk and informed her that somebody would contact her in due course regarding the findings.

Responding to Angela’s complaint, a Tesco customer service manager replied to her post on Facebook and said: “Hello Angela, thanks for getting in touch with us today.

“I’m terribly sorry to see this strange substance which was in your milk, to be completely honest I really can’t say what this is as it doesn’t look like typical milk curdling.

“Of course I can understand how shocking this must have been.

“I can certainly advise the best way to have this looked into further would be if it’s possible to return the milk to either the store it was purchased from or to the customer service desk of any of our larger stores (Tesco Extra or Tesco Superstore).

“This way we can send everything back to the supplier so they can look into how it got in there in the first place, and of course this will help with making sure nobody else runs into the same issue.

“The store certainly also has the ability to make sure you’re reimbursed for this and they can give a gesture of goodwill at their discretion too.”

At the time of speaking to The Bury Times, Angela said she was awaiting the outcome of Tesco’s investigation and remained keen to discover exactly what had caused the unusual contamination.

Tesco was approached for comment but did not provide a statement by the time of publication.