Food bank volunteers were gobsmacked after someone donated a jar of Uncle Ben’s sauce – which expired in 1998.<br /><br />The 25-year-old ‘Gratins Dauphinoise Cheese & Onion Sauce For Potatoes' was included in a box given to Sunderland and County Durham Food Bank.<br /><br />It was found on Tuesday (23/1) by a volunteer who was checking items at their warehouse in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.<br /><br />The worker became suspicious when they looked at the faded label and noticed the contents of the sauce was “a little grey”.<br /><br />It had printed on the lid the best before date of June 9, 1998 – meaning it expired a whopping 9,360 days ago.<br /><br />Food bank manager Jonathan Conlon, 47, said it was the oldest item volunteers had ever received.<br /><br />He said: "We sometimes get things that are a couple of years out of date and occasionally at harvest festival time, for example, we get things that people have cleared out from the back of their cupboards.<br /><br />"It's not that unusual to get the odd donation that is out of date, maybe a year or two, but this is the record.<br /><br />"It's crazy really, it's older than some of the people who work here.<br /><br />“It couldn’t have come from donations at a supermarket because everything is in date so it must have been a personal donation.<br /><br />“We certainly won’t be opening it but to be fair although it looks a little bit grey, the sauce looks intact and not too bad considering it’s age.”<br /><br />Jonathan posted a picture of the out-of-date sauce on X, formerly Twitter, to remind people to check the dates of food before donating.<br /><br />He added: "Sometimes we get half-eaten packets of biscuits or cakes where, maybe, somebody has tried it themselves and thought better of it.<br /><br />"What we always say is it's wonderful to receive donations but if people can donate things that they would like to receive themselves, that's probably the best rule of thumb."<br /><br />The 25-year-old jar of Uncle Ben's sauce is now going on display at the food bank.
