AN EXPECTANT mum has called on pregnant women to check the sell-by dates of their supplements after being sold tablets almost six months out of date.

Kirsty Lawlor had already taken two of the Morrisons own-brand folic acid pills before discovering they expired in August last year.

She bought the £1.50 bottle containing 180 pills from the supermarket’s branch in Blackhorse Street in Bolton town centre on Thursday — just the day after she found out she was pregnant.

Ms Lawlor said: “I thought it was important to help the baby’s development.

“I took one on the Thursday and one on the Friday and it was on Saturday I realised they were out of date.

“I had the bottle on the bed and I was taking my iron supplement and the folic acid bottle rolled out and I started to read the side of the bottle and that’s when I noticed the date was 2016. I thought I was seeing things and ran to my partner so he could double-check.

“I was sick with worry. I rang 111 and they looked into it and said: we can’t see how it would harm your baby.”

She said the bottle she picked up was one of a number on the shelf when she went shopping so she fears more could have also have expired.

She said: “You would check the use-by date of milk, cheese and fruit but you wouldn’t check it for medication, would you? You wouldn’t expect medication to be off or to be kept on the shop floor for so long. I haven’t a clue if it’s a one-off.”

After discovering the tablets had expired, the 28-year-old contacted Morrisons’ head office and her case was passed onto a technical team to investigate why the product was still on sale.

Ms Lawlor of Springfield Street, Great Lever, said: “I did some research and out-of-date tablets are less effective.

“I’m concerned about what if a pregnant woman has gone and bought folic acid tablets and has not checked the dates and have been taking them throughout their pregnancy.“If you didn’t realise and you had taken them for nine months and the baby was born with something wrong it would be a nightmare.”

A Morrisons spokesperson said “Our store has confirmed there are no other out of date folic acid tablets on sale and we have apologised to our customer.”