Beware, new parents: you may be feeding your baby a formula for disaster.

Grocery stores across the Island have been selling outdated liquid baby formulas - some which expired in August of 2002 - which environmental health officers admit could be harmful to babies.

One worried mother told The Royal Gazette she had visited three grocery stores in an effort to find baby formula that had not yet expired. At all three stores - Lindo's in Warwick, A-1 in Paget, and the Church Street Hamilton Marketplace - she found formulas dated to expire between three days and almost two weeks previously.

The mother, who did not wish to leave her name, said she spoke with the manager at Lindo's on April 3, who promptly had the expired formulas (dated April 1) removed from the shelves.

At A-1 on April 8, she actually got home before noticing the use-by date on the can, also April 1. She returned the can and got her money back.

On Thursday she visited the Church Street Marketplace. "They had a lot, but it was all out of date," she said. So, feeling somewhat panicky, she switched formula brands from Enfamil to Isomil. "Isomil was also out of date," she said. "April 1."

She said she did tell someone there, but was unsure whether anything had been done.

This prompted The Royal Gazette to go on a shopping spree on Thursday afternoon. Stopping first at the Church Street Hamilton Marketplace, it was reassuring to see that all the Enfamil and Isomil on the shelves appeared to be in-date. However it was not so with the two other brands of liquid baby formula stocked at Marketplace - a small can of Carnation's Follow Up was dated March 1, 2003, and bottles of Similac (low-iron formula) were dated April 1, 2003.

The same was found at four of the nine other grocery stores visited. Bottles of Similac low iron formula dated April 1, 2003 were found at White's and Modern Mart. A bottle of Similac low iron formula dated February 2003 was found at Arnold's Market in Sandys.

The most disturbing find was at the A-1 in Paget where the young mother had visited on April 8. There, as in the Church Street Marketplace, all the bottles of Enfamil and Isomil appeared to be in date. However, as in most of the other shops, we found bottles of Similac low iron formula dated April 1 and, the worst find of all: a dented can of Carnation's Follow Up, pushed to prominence right at the front of the shelf, dated to expire in August of 2002 - eight months ago.

Pitt & Co. are the wholesalers who supply stores with Carnation products.

The same mother who contacted The Royal Gazette on Thursday phoned again on Friday to say she had visited the Shelly Bay Marketplace - only to find more outdated formulas.

Neither Lindo's in Warwick or in Devonshire did not appear to have any out of date formulas left, nor did the Heron Bay Marketplace, Maximart, or the A-1 at Collector's Hill.

An environmental health spokesman said a can of baby formula which expired a month ago is not likely to cause a problem.

However he admitted the can which expired almost a year ago would be of concern. "It doesn't mean something would happen but it could happen," he said, although he was unwilling to specify what exactly as this was the first he had heard of the matter.

He also said inspectors from the Ministry of Health do go around to the stores to check the product sell-by dates. "They have those dates for a reason."

A spokesman from the Marketplace group of stores (which includes the A-1 stores) said the store also has someone full-time who is supposed to check the sell-by dates on all the products. "I am very concerned," he said.

"The matter will be addressed right away. The purchasing department is going to call every single store and check every single date. They will be off by five this afternoon."

He was relieved to hear that no expired Enfamil or Isomil products were found, as that suggested action was taken when the mother complained originally. "They just didn't have enough common sense to check the other brands," he said.

He also said if a customer finds such an expired product, they should not only tell the manager of that store but also phone the main office, for if an outdated product is in one store, it may be in the others.

And John Tomlinson, the CEO of Bermuda General Agency (BGA), the wholesaler which supplies stores with Enfamil, Isomil and Similac, said it was "very unusual", considering the amount of checks done, for a product to still be on the shelf after it has expired.

Products are supposed to be rotated daily but occasionally, he said, people slip.

"It would not have been sent out if it was out-of-date," he said, explaining the wholesaler sends enough for a period of time. "No-one would deliberately leave out-of-date products on the shelf."

For one thing, he said, if a product expires while on store shelves, the store can return it to the wholesaler which then must replenish it with an in-date product.

"People should be encouraged to report to the store immediately," he said. "They'll take the responsible action and we'll do our utmost to follow them." BGA would check on all the baby formulas being sent out and make sure this was not the case in other stores, he added.

"This is something everybody's enthusiastic to avoid."