Photo : Barbara Alper ( Getty Images )

A Lakewood, Colorado family didn’t initially notice anything strange about the package of Quaker 100% Natural Granola cereal they purchased recently at Walmart. Patriarch Josiah Carelse reportedly ate a full bowl before his wife pointed out the best-buy date: February 22, 1997.


Denver7 reports that no one in the family got sick, but they probably didn’t enjoy the stale cereal very much either.

“It just tastes funny. It must be okay,” Josiah Carelse told Denver7, in a stunning display of hunger’s triumph over taste buds.


Denver7 confirmed that the item’s UPC number printed on the family’s Walmart receipt matched the code printed on the cereal’s label. The family would later Google that specific brand of cereal—turns out, the packaging has changed a bit in the past 21 years.

For its part, Walmart told the TV station via a spokesperson that the company is investigating the matter. Presumably the Lakewood Walmart stock room is getting a deep-clean this weekend.