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Best before dates, are they accurate?


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#1 Bingo

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 06:12 AM

Marketplace investigation found grocery store tricks to sell old food

 

For five years, Mohammad Saffari has worked as a bakery clerk at a Loblaws store in Montreal. He says he was told to change best-before dates on fresh or frozen bakery items such as cheesecakes, muffins and pastries that were weeks or months past the best-before date.

Saffari says he was told to take cheesecakes that had passed their best-before dates and add toppings, so they would appear fresh.

He says cakes were then given a new best-before date and put back on the shelves for sale.

Marketplace heard from people who have worked in the bakery, meat and produce departments of a number of different grocery stores, both chains and independent. They described a number of tricks that supermarkets employ to make food appear fresh.

These tactics include grinding old meat with fresher meat, marinating old meat in sauces that mask the smell, cutting mould off fruit and vegetables for party trays, and cutting cakes in half to facilitate a faster sale after the best-before has passed.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...3306395?cmp=rss

 

 



#2 weirdie

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 07:01 AM

I worked in the deli at Superstore many moons ago and it was common practice to replace the labels on food past its BB date.

#3 Mike K.

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 07:05 AM

Jesus. So why have so many employees kept that practice to themselves?
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#4 weirdie

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 07:29 AM

I don't know about other people, but personally it was because I was 16 and DGAF.

#5 johnk

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 11:38 AM

My neighbourhood butcher (now retired) was trained in England and had more than 40 years experience. He told me he bought beef for personal consumption at Thrifty's on the BB day or the day after when it was marked down. He took it home, rewrapped it tightly and stuck it in the back of his fridge for another 20 days. No problem, he said, as long as you re-package properly and the beef was way more tender and flavourful.

#6 sebberry

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 12:04 PM

I used to use caution buying chicken at Safeway.  You're only supposed to store uncooked poultry for a couple of days in the fridge, but they used to have BB dates labelled 8 days out.  I'd buy chicken with 4 days left on the BB date thinking it was fresh and it was already turning smelly. 


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#7 Dietrich

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 12:22 PM

I once bought a roast that was on sale because it was reaching it's expiry date from one of the smaller independent grocery stores here in Vic and it looked fine - until I pulled it out of the oven to check on it and found maggots had crawled their way out of it.



#8 Mike K.

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 01:44 PM

Ok. That wins the Nastiest Post of the Week Award, for sure.


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#9 Langford Rat

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 01:45 PM

I used to work at Lilydale Poultry. We'd sell our fresh chickens up to three days after the kill but the retailer would tag them from the date they recieved them. You could get chicken that was processed on Monday delivered to the store on Thursday and if they cut it up or portion packed the next day they would use Friday as the start day to work the expiry date. KFC was very, very particular and would only accept chicken that was killed one day prior to delivery...can't say how long they kept it for, though



#10 sebberry

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 01:49 PM

I used to work at Lilydale Poultry. We'd sell our fresh chickens up to three days after the kill but the retailer would tag them from the date they recieved them. You could get chicken that was processed on Monday delivered to the store on Thursday and if they cut it up or portion packed the next day they would use Friday as the start day to work the expiry date.

 

Interesting.  So would it be "safer" to buy Lilydale branded product or does the store simply slap on a Lilydale sticker after they portion and package.


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#11 Langford Rat

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 02:32 PM

I'm not sure how it works, now. That was a looong time ago. At that time there was no expiry date put on the product at the processing plant. The only pre-packs that we did were the yellow foam trays that said "Lilydale Fresh Wings", or drums or thighs, etc. These were sold to the retailer in boxes of 24 trays with a production date on the master case. The stores put their own expiry date on them when they weighed/priced the indivdual trays.



#12 Bingo

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 04:25 PM

    Last Updated: Mar 26, 2015 8:10 AM PT

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is recalling a chicken product due to concerns about possible Listeria contamination.

The affected brand is Lilydale Inc. "Oven Roasted Carved Chicken Breast" in 400-gram packages with a best-before date of April 28, 2015.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...ecall-1.3010382

 



#13 Mike K.

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 04:35 PM

KFC was very, very particular and would only accept chicken that was killed one day prior to delivery...can't say how long they kept it for, though


And a special cut, right?

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#14 johnk

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 06:42 PM

Given KFC's volume and pricing I would not expect them to be using the best-quality birds. Perdue or Tyson would be my guess, birds produced in giant poultry slums.

#15 Langford Rat

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 09:48 PM

And a special cut, right?

Yes, a special cut and a special size. The standard cut was "cut in eight" which was 2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 drums , a breast and a back. KFC was a 2 pound bird with a "cut in nine"...2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 drums. a breast tip and 2 breast top/ back pieces. Each piece was about 100 grams and they all cooked through at about the same time.Their fryers were all pre-set with temp and time to cook this size...they didn't want a 2 1/2 bird even if we only charged them for 2 pounds.



#16 johnk

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Posted 06 November 2015 - 11:31 PM

Interesting.

#17 Mike K.

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Posted 07 November 2015 - 08:24 AM

Yes, a special cut and a special size. The standard cut was "cut in eight" which was 2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 drums , a breast and a back. KFC was a 2 pound bird with a "cut in nine"...2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 drums. a breast tip and 2 breast top/ back pieces. Each piece was about 100 grams and they all cooked through at about the same time.Their fryers were all pre-set with temp and time to cook this size...they didn't want a 2 1/2 bird even if we only charged them for 2 pounds.

 

Yeah, that's what I had heard was the case.

 

Sometimes we get all uppity about fast food operations but they do have their standards and they are good at what they do. You'll get fresher chicken at KFC than you would at many restaurants. Go figure.


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#18 Bingo

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Posted 07 November 2015 - 08:44 AM

Yeah, that's what I had heard was the case.

 

Sometimes we get all uppity about fast food operations but they do have their standards and they are good at what they do. You'll get fresher chicken at KFC than you would at many restaurants. Go figure.

 

Along with all that low-cal batter.



#19 Bingo

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Posted 09 January 2016 - 09:19 AM

A few years ago I must have bought a few tubes of toothpaste on sale and have just noticed there is an expiry date (DE2012)stamped across the bottom of the tube.

 

The only ingredient  listed is sodium fluoride o.243%.  Does that stuff go baaad?



#20 Rob Randall

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Posted 09 January 2016 - 04:16 PM

If you're spooked by using it to brush your teeth, toothpaste makes a great polishing compound. It will bring hazy plastics like watch crystals and car headlights back to life.

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