Sanyuan's milk product in a Beijing supermarket Photo: CFP

A customer, surnamed Tong, will receive compensation from Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co. Ltd. after he alleged they sold him bottled milk printed with a production date one day later than it was delivered.

The company delivered two bottles to Tong, who lives in Panjiayuan Dongli, Chaoyang district, on Tuesday, but the manufacturing date was for the following day, according to a Beijing Morning Post report.

"One appeared to be manufactured this Monday, which is normal, but how could the production time of the other bottle be a future date?" Tong told the paper.

"And one of my family members drank it Tuesday night before we realized, and I'm worried," said Tong.

An employee from Sanyuan's  Panjiayuan delivery depot, who declined to be named, said he was unaware of Tong's complaint, but thought it more likely that he simply mistook the printed production date "January 16, 2012" for "January 18, 2012."

"It happened before, and we just asked the customers to take a careful look at it," said he.

Wang Yongshun, the customer service manager at Sanyuan's Beijing head office, held the same opinion, but promised compensation worth ten times the milk's regular price, 2.1 yuan ($0.33) a bottle, said the report.

"The first three and last three boxes of milk are always held back for inspection, and we didn't see any bottle printed with the wrong date, but since it's hard to tell whether it's a 6 or 8, we'd like to apologize and make compensation," said Wang.

A female manager from Sanyuan's customer service hotline who also declined to be named, said yesterday they were having a meeting on the matter but refused to comment more.

"It's the only case we've received so far, but we'll investigate further," she said.

Last December, Sanyuan were also sued, after customers said they gave out-of-date milk as free gifts in a Jingkelong supermarket in Fengtai district, according the Beijing Times on December 27.