Carney Safeway selling expired dairy products: Naughty Business of the Week
A word to the wise: check the sell-by date of all your perishable foods before you put them in your grocery cart.
Esther Roskam has learned that you can't rely on stores to clear their shelves of dairy products past their sell-by dates.
The Parkville resident has shopped at the Safeway on Waltham Woods Road in Carney for several years. But starting in December, she noticed expired dairy products still on the shelf --- mostly her favorite Dannon Fruit on the Bottom yogurt, but sometimes even milk or buttermilk.
Roskam spoke the store manager on duty each time she visited but never felt like it made a difference. She became concerned that the store might not be upholding other, less obvious standards.
"They’re not listening to me saying there’s expired food in their case. How do i know they’re keeping the food at the right temperature?" she asked.
Thankfully the world has dedicated consumers such as Roskam to advocate for shoppers like me who blindly pick up cheese and sour cream without a care in the world, never ensuring that the sell-by date has not passed.
"I'm concerned for all the people shopping there who don't know what they're getting," she said.
After months of talking to the store's managers, Roskam contacted The Sun, and we called the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection & Resource Management, which inspects food service businesses.
Based on her complaint, a sanitarian visited on June 3 and discovered ...
... 25 6 oz. containers of Dannon Light and Fit yogurt all with expiration dates ranging from May 6 to May 29, according to a complaint investigation form. The products were voluntarily discarded, the report states.
No citations were issued for the violation, but they abated the problems by removing the expired products, said Alphonsus Korie, a field supervisor for the county environmental health department. They could receive a citation if the problem persists on a future visit.
When customers spot expired products on the shelf at any store, they should alert management, Korie said. If a customer remains concerned, they can file a complaint with the county.
Safeway spokesman Greg Ten Eyck said he was "very disappointed" to hear about this problem, and promised to call the manager at the Safeway store to discuss the situation.
"It sounds like a dairy manager is not doing the job of correctly circulating out the oldest product," he said. "Sounds like they need a little more supervision to make sure they're properly following company policies and procedures."
"It's certainly not acceptable by our standards," said Ten Eyck, adding that Safeway would take steps to fix the problem.
Roskam was pleased by the outcome. “I’m really happy it’s being addressed at this point,” she said. “I feel like I don’t have faith it will be immediately resolved, because Safeway has demonstrated there’s an ongoing problem.”
Unfortunately, the problem persisted as recently as yesterday. She visited the store Monday and discovered that all her preferred brand of yogurts were outdated May 31 through June 6.
(photo of yogurt dated May 24 taken on May 31 by Esther Roskam)
Comments
Just a reminder that this can also happen at drugstores. I have found over-the-counter medicines and other items on the shelf, such as contact lens solutions, with expired dates. It always pays to take a look first.
Good tip, PK! -- lfk.
Posted by: PK | June 16, 2009 1:16 PM
This has happened to me with yogurt, pillsbury dough and often bacon. I always check the expiration dates now. I don't have time to return things once i get home and discover it's bad...
Good call! Sounds like it doesn't matter what category we're talking about: if it's a perishable item, check the date. --- lfk.
Posted by: Holly | June 16, 2009 2:26 PM
I bought expired "fresh made" raviolli from Wegmans so this can happen anywhere. I bought the raviolli (from the dairy section fresh pastas) in early June and found out when I got home it expired May 10th. I expected more from Wegmans - you have to check all dates not just milk products :-)
Posted by: Gina C | June 17, 2009 7:16 AM
As a dairy manager for many years it's a balancing act sometimes to keep the dates right. Keep it full and fresh with the hours available. If the store works as a team things usually go very, the Safeway needs to go that way. The manager isn't on that page.
Steve, thanks for the observation! -- lfk.
Posted by: Steve M | June 17, 2009 10:32 AM
My guess is that Safeway is either buying its dairy products already out of date or the store has a major problem not rotating the product.
When you rotate a product you put the new product in the back and the old product towards the front. That's why you always see little old ladies trying so desperately to get those eggs way in the back.
So it could be that the employees are too lazy to rotate their stock and the managers are to incompetent to care.
Posted by: Ima Fish | June 17, 2009 1:54 PM
It isn't only Safeway that has a problem with pull dates -- I've had similar issues at Giant and Walmart, among other stores. Also, the number of store workers who know how to rotate products appears to be rapidly shrinking. I can't begin to add up the number of times I've seen the freshest milk or eggs loaded up front and on top, while items with older or about-to-expire pull dates are buried in the back. When I started at an A&P many years ago, they never would have tolerated such sloppy stocking of their shelves.
Good point! "First in, first out" doesn't seem to be that difficult a concept ... To tell you the truth, I kinda wonder whether dairy aisle staff just get fed up with people taking apart the milk display in their quest to find the carton with the farthest date. --- lfk.
Posted by: hmpstd | June 18, 2009 10:36 AM
This happens at a lot of stores. I take advantage of this at Shoppers, they have a freshnes guarantee....If you find an expired item you get one of that item free. If I have spare time while shopping I treat it like a treasure hunt....I always find at least 1 item, usually imported cheese, organic juices etc.
Hmm, that's one way to get customers on your side! (You don't have to take home the expired product, do you?) At this particular store, Esther was concerned because the problem was so widespread ... not just a single item, but many within different product categories. --- lfk.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 22, 2009 6:01 AM
safeway isnt buying outdated food u iddiot! safeway has created its own problem.They pay new employees slave wages,so whats the incentive to rotate the yogurt when u make $7 per hour!!!!
Posted by: govtslave | July 10, 2009 10:31 PM
a At that store we have stopped buying their ready made food in the cases because we became ill after eating one of their subs on special. Last week I didn't buy bakery bagels because of the bugs flying around in the case. 7months ago we found sliced plastic in our Signature pizza. We noticed the granola bars purchased 3 months ago were dated 2008, but no one got sick. So we have stopped buying most Safeway brand products. I wonder how they justify the constant price increases?
Posted by: joy | November 16, 2009 8:38 AM