In a statement issued to the Daily Liberal, Woolworths stated it takes “incidents, such as the one alleged, very seriously”.

The date labelled on the packaging was January 11. The Browns purchased the pasta on January 25 and have kept the receipts and the packaging to prove it.

“I think it is just disappointing, they are dealing with food and people’s health,” Mr Brown said.

Woolworths said the Orana Mall store was very proud of the trust its customers have in it to ensure top-quality products are available.

“Unfortunately, in rare circumstances human error can lead to one of our 30,000 products to be out of date,” the statement read.

“After initial investigations, we have found no evidence of this particular product being out of date.

“If the customer brings in the receipt and packet we will fully investigate this incident as is our policy.”

According to Mr Brown, when he put in a call to the ‘fresh food people’ at Orana Mall they were very unsympathetic.

“They almost got cranky with me,” he said.

“They offered me a refund which I said I didn’t want, I wanted a written apology.

“I was told they couldn’t give me a written apology.”

But Woolworths has defended the protocol taken by its staff member.

“The staff member who dealt with this customer followed Woolworths policy and we are satisfied she was courteous to the customer in what were challenging circumstances,” the statement read.

Mrs Brown said she had filed the incident with the NSW Food Authority. According to a NSW Food Authority spokesperson the compliant was referred to Dubbo council on Thursday.

“This is the normal procedure for consumer incidents of food sold past the use-by date,” the spokesperson said.

The Browns said they would not be returning to Woolworths to do their shopping.