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A fishy food expiration date story
One of our regular, but former, blog posters (she doesn't like the new format) sent an e-mail about her experience with Von's and a bottle ot tartar sauce she bought.
She realized at home it was eight months past the expiration date. So her husband took it back and he found three more bottles on the shelf well past the expiration date. He gave them to the store manager and got a new one. If that's all that happened, you wouldn't be reading about it. The next day he goes back and finds all four on the shelf again for sale. The blog poster, Len, offered this report: Her husband took them to the manager and re-explained all about this situation, the manager on duty was very complacent and replied "oh, well - they must've thought it was a re-stock" (which means some innocent customer purchased a rotten/expired bottle) In this day and age of people DYING from rotten expired and tainted food items, you would THINK that the management would actually care about the foods being sold to folks! I could care less about my $1.78 ~ but we have been Von's/Safeway customers for over 21 years, and I am very concerned about the staff that you have in charge of mine and my families health!Is this an anomaly, or have you had any similar experience with food items you bought? Posted by Steve E. Swenson 15 comments from 9 users
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posted by
Ilvhenry2
on Feb 23, 2007 at 12:25 PM
Same thing happened to me at the Vons on N. Chester. I 've seen backaged sandwich meat that was clearly past the expiration date because parts of the meat was green. Prior to that I no longer buy the beef, chicken,pork, etc. in the meat section because the meat looked fine until I came home and opened (that same day) and it smelled rotten. I've seen many food items with past expiration dates therefore, I no longer can trust Vons to feed my family.
posted by
robbwillis
on Feb 23, 2007 at 12:25 PM
The reason the tartar sauce had been on the shelf so long was because nobody could find it. They probably had it as far away from fish products as logic would permit before they rearranged the store and assigned it to oblivion. The idea is to keep people in the store longer. Even if they're wandering around, they may buy more.
posted by
mattloch
on Feb 23, 2007 at 01:12 PM
You would think that the two-inch accumulation of dust on the cap would have been their first hint that they should check the expiration date..... Did they go back a third time to see if they we put back again, Steve? Inquiring minds want to know.
posted by
coochee
on Feb 23, 2007 at 01:15 PM
Can you believe that stores actually hire people to go through expiration codes? You'd think that that would be part of the job description for those who stock: Check expiration dates, and rotate stock. Nuh -uh. I used to work at a Kmart (not here) where all I did was go through the pantry and sort through expiration dates. I would haul out 1 to 3 carts daily of expired stuff. One of the most frustrating parts of the job was that the people that stocked did not speak or read English, so as soon as I got rid of something, they would haul out more of the same expired product that they dug up out of the catacombs of the store. There was no rotation of stock either, so the front row would be fresh, but everything behind it died out 2 years ago. If I didn't put a big sign on my cart saying "do not restock, spoiled, in both English and Spanish, you could sure as hell gaurantee that it would get restocked on the floor. Also, alot of expiration codes aren't as transparent as they should be. I was seriously considering contacting congress about having manufacturers make dates easier to read. We had a special code book to decipher some of the dates. For example, the expiration code would be 18362. Subtract the first 2 digits from 3000, divide by 5, then take the corresponding julian date, add 6 .....I kid you not. They don't want us to know what the expiration dates are. posted by
anonymous
on Feb 23, 2007 at 01:33 PM
"Did they go back a third time to see if they we put it back again..." I couldn't help but notice the freudaan SLIP ? "We" meaning a Vons employee most likely, or related to one? No, were not freaks, just concerned parents!
Len and Family
posted by
mattloch
on Feb 23, 2007 at 01:40 PM
Sorry to disappoint, anon, but it was a simple matter of my brain moving faster than my hands, and a truncated post to remain on topic. No Freudian posted by
anonymous
on Feb 23, 2007 at 02:14 PM
OOHH! Naughty.. Anyhow - Back on topic ~ after some on-line research today, we found that the stores aren't actually liable for selling items after the expiration date...no real regulations I guess !
posted by
goldiloxff
on Feb 23, 2007 at 02:25 PM
THIS IS WHAT MY HUBBY FOUND: Most people are surprised to find out that:
The major codes are:
Len & Family posted by
robbwillis
on Feb 23, 2007 at 03:11 PM
How about an expiration date sticker that turns into a skull and crossbones when its past due?
posted by
pamg
on Feb 23, 2007 at 04:25 PM
Maybe they should have put one of those expiration skull & crossbones stickers on Anna Nicole's body. Ewwwww!
posted by
NancyII
on Feb 23, 2007 at 10:36 PM
Another Vons tale. The other day they had Hormel franks buy one get one free so I like to take advantage of those deals. They've gotten so expensive. Anyway..since the Hormel All Beef Franks are the only ones I buy I picked up a package and saw they had little white spots all over them..almost like mold. ALL of the packs were the same so I took them to a manager. He tried to tell me it was fat coming out and when they warmed up it would go away. I told him that I'd been buying them forever and had never seen anything like that. He went back to the department with me and seemed surprised that the whole batch was speckled (even tho I'd told him) so he started gathering them up to take to the back and thanked me for bringing it to his attention. Hopefully, that's where they stayed. If he had continued to play it off I'd have reported the whole incident but honestly, I think he realized I was right when I told him I doubt anyone would buy them like that. I didn't even look at the expiration date..at that point it didn't matter. posted by
NancyII
on Feb 24, 2007 at 09:40 AM
Errrrkk. I said Hormel but what I always buy is Oscar Meyer. Duh!
posted by
AudreyB
on Feb 24, 2007 at 09:53 PM
I look at the expiration date on everything I buy. I hate to give away my favorite fishing hole, but the freshest stuff is behind and beneath the stuff up front . Go digging for it.
posted by
CurtDalton
on Feb 28, 2007 at 06:14 AM
This isn't an isolated incident. We have had the same thing happen as well. From meat products (the most common item) to Haagen-Daz we have purchased foodstuffs at Vons and Albertsons and upon getting home realized the items were bad.
Corporate greed or lazy empolyees?
BOTH!
Maybe it's tome for the DA to do another sting operation and fine the bejesus out of them (again).
Call the Health Department & the DA - That's what I did!
posted by
anonymous
on Feb 28, 2007 at 08:34 AM
This is what i received from Vons On-Line: "Thank you for your recent correspondence. I actually am not trying to pick on Vons itself, I am sure all the stores are the same in the fact that they don't check dates...it just surprises me that in this day and time with all of the sickness and deaths from consumers purchasing tainted products from their local grocer, you would think the stores would try to be more careful !
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