A WOMAN narrowly avoided feeding her family and friends potentially deadly, out-of-date pâté delivered to her by a supermarket.

Kim Marshall, 31, ordered her weekly shop including chicken liver pâté online from Tesco.

But when she unpacked her shopping she found that the tub of pâté was nearly two weeks past its use by date.

Out-of-date pâté can potentially cause the rare food poisoning listerosis, which hospitalises most people it affects and is the highest cause of death from food poisoning in the UK.

It is particularly dangerous for pregnant women and young children.

Tesco apologised to Miss Marshall, from Haywards Heath, and offered her money off, but she felt that the situation should have been taken more seriously by the supermarket.

Financial analyst Miss Marshall told The Argus: “I contacted Tesco and they gave me £10 off my next shop, but to be honest I’m not sure I’d ever want to shop with them again.

“But I had no idea how dangerous it could be until I did some research on the internet and found my family could have been hospitalised and there’s a one in three chance of dying.

“I had people coming round for dinner that evening so it’s really lucky I noticed it or I could have made them really ill.

“I’ve now also reported it to environmental health.”

The pâté was delivered from the Crawley branch of the supermarket.

A spokeswoman for Crawley Borough Council warned that eating out of date pâté can be “extremely dangerous”.

A Tesco spokeswoman said: “We set ourselves the highest standards for the food our Grocery Home Shopping colleagues deliver to customers’ doors. We’ve apologised to Miss Marshall and offered her a gesture of goodwill.

“Our team will carry out a full investigation into how this could have occurred.”

A spokeswoman for the Food Standards Agency explained that unlike best before dates, which are a general guide, use by dates should not be ignored because of the serious risk of food poisoning.

She added: “Use by dates are a matter of food safety.

“Retailers certainly shouldn’t selling food that has past its use by date and people shouldn’t eat it.”