I was looking for a site with legal information.

Our only major grocery store in the area is known for selling expired items. They sometimes even go so far as to use a black marker to cover the expiration date and then mark the item down.

Whenever I buy anything there, especially clearance items, I always check the date. The other day though I must have missed one. It was a bag of dried apricots and we ate through most the bag (heh dried fruit tastes old anyways) before noticing the date of May 12 2009.

The store was really snippy when I asked for a refund until I told them that Sunmaid suggested I contact the BBB. Today I checked through most of their clearance bin and over half the items expired at least a year ago, some as long as 20 months ago. I took pictures of some of the items showing the date.

Anyways I was wondering if that was in violation of any laws. From their reaction when I tried to return the apricots, it is clear they know how old the items are. I have no problem with places selling slightly outdated food. I often stock up on items for the week from a day old bread store, but 20 months is ridiculous.

According to [abcnews.go.com]

"At least 20 states require some dating, but selling expired foods, even at a discount, is rarely prohibited."

The spouse (who used to work for a regional grocery chain) says if you didn't become ill and the store gave you a refund you likely can't do anything. You could check with your county health department to see if city, county, or state laws are being violated. You could try the USDA if meat or dairy is involved.

The nearest grocery to my mom's house doesn't even bother pulling expired items from the shelves to put into a clearance bin. When I take her shopping, we have to check the date on every single item.

You could always go to the media. Does anyone remember Food Lion? [en.wikipedia.org]

Generally your local health inspectors do that kind of checking. Most items say "Best if used by _____" rather than listing as a don't use beyond date. The exceptions to this are fresh meats, where the look of expired meat is generally going to be a turn off to purchase. In reality, even vacuum packed materials are dated well before a time when they might be dangerous. Many canned and dried materials will be good for years past their 'expiration' if stored properly in a cool, dry place. So it really comes down to the store themselves to police/patrol this stuff. The other issue is that some products have a 'packed on' date rather than a 'use by date'.

The Albertson's that used to be in my market had a policy that items were 'its fresh or its free'. They were huge abusers, especially in meats, of selling out of date product. While initially they gave you the out of date product free, either public pressure or health department pressure was brought to bear and if it was out of date you got a fresh dated one free. I used to wander through their meat department and load my cart with two similarly priced items--the out of date one and the fresh dated one--to head for the register. I did not dare show my hand in the meat department or they would run ahead of me pulling out of date materials because they KNEW what was out of date but were trying to sell it anyway. I did not dare leave my cart unattended because as soon as the meat department spotted me I would be shadowed through the store and out of date products were literally removed from my cart and 'disappeared'. We did a lot of hams and sausages and corned beefs as my kids were growing up based on the 'fresh or free' promotion. In the early days of it there were times when I left the store with hundreds of dollars worth of free meat, eggs and cheese.

These days most groceries in my area either give stuff to the Food Bank as it is approaching expiration or mark it down a day or two in advance of expiration. I recently picked up several 'family packs' of Purdue chicken breasts and thighs where there are interior freezer packs that are the perfect portion for 2 people. These were "Use or freeze by" dated 2 days in advance and were marked down to less than half price. They were obviously part of a big over order mistake as they were being brought out from the back still solidly frozen and popped into my freezer still solidly frozen. One of the few times in recent history I spent money on groceries that was not reimbursed for a shop.

Edited to add: As for Food Lion . . . they are no longer around here, though I understand they still exist in some markets. I was in the store one day when the deli gal was pulling the vacuum pack cheeses such as Kraft, cutting the mold off and rewrapping them in saran to sell as house branded loose chunks at a per pound price higher than the original Kraft. I put back the groceries I had in my cart and left empty handed.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2010 06:18PM by Flash.

When I searched my state, the most I could find was a health board forcing a WalMart to remove some really expired merchandise.

I guess I'll just hang onto my pictures in case I find out more about it. I am surprised there aren't more regulations about it. In the late winter, I did several audits of the Speedway gas station chain and expired items were one of the things that would cause an automatic failure.

Federally, the FDA inspects annually. On a local basis, the county health department inspects grocery stores on a monthly basis, here. Call your county health department, ask questions and rattle some chains.

Food Lion stores, and their upscale sister, Bloom, are hanging on by a thread here. Delhaize is Food Lion's parent company, as well as Hannaford's and Sweetbay's, if I'm not mistaken.

Correct on Delhaize. The various chains have very different approaches and target clientele. We have Sweetbay in my market and it falls midrange among the chains here for quality, service and prices.

Ages ago when I lived in Fort Worth, Food Lion put in a store within walking distance of our house. I tried so hard to like the place, because it was cheap and close. As long as I avoided refrigerated items, everything was fine, other than parts of the store sometimes smelled funny. Several friends absolutely refused to shop there after trying it a few times, and I would guess my location lost money due to a lack of customers. All of this was before the undercover news special that showed employees bleaching expired meat. Even after all these years, I still get queasy remembering Food Lion.

Elmer, wasn't that more than 15 years ago? Questionable ethics and a jury verdict against ABC resulted. This many years later, I certainly would hope that negative posts based on recollections of ancient history could not negatively impact that business or its employees. Times are tough enough as it is.

Back to the topic of this thread . . .

Oops! I didn't mean for that post to come across so negatively, but upon rereading it I can see that it did. I think my point was it still made me queasy in spite of the passage of time. (The Wikipedia link I posted upthread had details on the ABC trial, which is why I didn't mention it.)

I did not realize I was off topic.

I am sorry for any offense.

It will not happen again.

I would call your state or local Consumber Protection Board. You are a consumer and you need protection from the groceryor store that is selling outdated persishablle foods.

Ask the (CP questions. and show them your pictures. You might be better off if there is a current days' newspaper in the picture or dated stamp photo.

Step up your game. Call the TV stations. Make your pictures in a video, with people purchasing the expired items.

Call the district or regional manager for the store, he may not be aware of what is going on.

(I hope this is a second hand store.)

sojo917 Wrote:
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> (I hope this is a second hand store.)


It's not, that's part of why I am so annoyed with it. It's a regular, and very highly priced (just the prices are high, NOT the quality) store. But it is the only regular grocery store in my small town so they know that even when people say they will not shop there again, they do go back.

I bought a pound of strawberries on Tuesday. I searched seriously 10 minutes to find a package that was not moldy, but by the next morning I had to throw them out. I bought milk that day too, it is dated August 9. It is already sour. They do not properly handle their dairy items and they are often left in heated storage room for hours.

The year old apricots bag was just like the last straw.

Lisa, that has happened to me a couple of times. I returned the items both times, and they happily told me to pick out another. Talk to the Mgr. you will be able to return, or tell him you'll have to report this...if someone got sick, they'll have a lawsuit on their hands. I know you asked for a way to report them...health dept...in CA we have an A on all restaurants, I'm not sure about grocery stores, I know Ralphs (big chain) here always has a guy pulling things off. I would report them to the health dept.if I were you.

The issue, as I see it, is that Lisa lives in a small town with one grocery store.

The health department person probably shops there, too. They may be on the take, they may be clueless, they may be unwilling to offend a neighbor, it might be their brother-in-law, and on it goes. (It is why shops on the other islands go wanting here-too small for comfort.) Telling the manager is not going to work in this instance. It might get her a refund on an item, but clearly the manager is aware that the store is doing this, and is probably the one requesting people do it, so it doesn't solve the problem.

Clearly, someone at the state level or county level needs to know, but unfortunately I have no clue what agencies those might be.

Clearly there needs to be another competitor in town! For all the screaming and ranting and raving and breast beating about a Walmart coming to town, what I have seen is that stores that were badly managed and never got their act together went out of business, stores that were well managed needed to adjust their price structure and stores that were great to start with stayed great.

dee shops Wrote:
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> Telling the manager is not going to work in this instance. It
> might get her a refund on an item, but clearly the
> manager is aware that the store is doing this, and
> is probably the one requesting people do it, so it
> doesn't solve the problem.

That is exactly it. If you complain enough, they will eventually give you a refund (except once last year they refused to refund for bagels that seriously molded within 12 hours), but they know what they are doing and continue to do it.

What finally just made it where I had enough was their attitude with the apricots. They knew they expired over a year ago and acted like I was the witch for asking for the refund.

Here are a couple of thoughts for you. First, a quick google yielded [en.allexperts.com] as a comment on expiration dates and a link to a USDA site.

Another notion, when you purchase an item that is out of date, contact the manufacturer. Be prepared to give them all the codes and such on the package. Complain that you just bought it and can email them a copy of your receipt to show it was purchased today (or yesterday) and did not taste right. Many companies now offer toll free numbers on the packaged product itself. Chances are good that they will attempt to 'do right by you' with a coupon for a free one or with some companies even shipping fresh product out to you. Let them know that the coupon won't help you much as Joe's Market (or whatever the store is) had all packages with the same code on the shelf and you are truly tired of buying expired merchandise. In conversation you may ask them if there are other stores in your area that sell their product. You may want to ask them if they have no control over their product being sold within its useful date at a full price retailer. Keep them on the phone long enough you have their attention and realize that their product is being maligned by this miscreant who is selling it past its freshness dating.