Chain stores bust for old food

Galactica

Galactica

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Major retailers have been implicated in a food-labelling scandal that puts consumers at risk of diarrhoea, vomiting and, in severe cases, even death.

A National Consumer Commission investigation has lifted the lid on widespread unlawful alteration, replacement and removal of food labels at Shoprite, Spar, OK Foods, U-save and other stores.

The commission found 84 retailers in Mpumalanga and North West that were guilty of tampering with labels on many basic food items, such as eggs, milk, tea, mincemeat, baby formula, chocolates, biscuits and cheese.

At one store, tins of baby formula had expired last year but were being sold, at the same price, months later. At another shop, boerewors was labelled as "char-grill, beef-flavour burgers".

Commission inspectors told The Times they were "shocked" by what they had seen. Food labels were erased with marking fluid and others had been torn off, ingredient lists were missing and homemade labels, with false expiry dates, had been placed over original labels. Some items had no labelling at all.

The commission's head of investigations, Prudence Moilwa, said all the guilty shops had signed forms undertaking to rectify their wrongful practices.

Shoprite has attributed the discoveries to "human error", while Spar says stores are individually owned and controlled.

The commission plans to extend its investigation to the rest of the country, believing that labelling crimes are rife.

This is largely because some of the 84 shops it visited were from chains with a countrywide presence. But many spaza shops and general dealers were also at fault.

It is an offence under the Consumer Protection Act to alter, falsify or remove a food label and those found guilty of doing so face up to 12 months' imprisonment or a fine of R1-million or up to 10% of their annual turnover.

The consequences for unsuspecting consumers can also be severe.

Food microbiologist and food safety expert Lucia Anelich said though it was not always dangerous to eat expired food, it could lead to food poisoning that, in extreme cases, could be fatal.

"Generally speaking, the vulnerable sectors of the population [young children, the elderly, those with compromised immune systems and pregnant women] are more susceptible to food poisoning and to more severe effects of food poisoning."

These included kidney failure, birth defects and meningitis, she said.

The head of the commission's inspection team, Ntsako Khoza, said one shop manager had admitted that he had instructed his staff to remove the labels from products that had passed their expiry date, saying he had not had enough time to sell the products and was losing money.

Consumer law expert Trudie Broekmann said the commission's findings served as a "wake-up call" for retailers.

"This [scandal] could cause phenomenal damage [to a retailer's image] in the eyes of the consumer. These things can open retailers up to big claims, including legal and medical expenses and compensation for the harm caused to the consumer," Broekmann said.

Sarita van Wyk, spokesman for the Shoprite Checkers group, which includes OK Foods and U-Save stores, attributed failures to human error: "An average store in the supermarket group carries up to 30000 food products and human error will, unfortunately occur from time to time on individual products."

Van Wyk said OK Foods was managed by individual franchises and she could not speak on their behalf.

Similarly, Mike Prentice, Spar Group merchandise executive, said: "All of the Spar stores are actually owned by the independent retailers and are therefore managed separately and are not owned by Spar the listed company. As a result, they do not have reporting channels on all events that take place at store level."

Stomach-turning experiences

Sylvia Hutchison - I bought a gammon from Spar and when I got home I saw it was past its use-by date. I returned it, no problem - except the next day I saw all the gammon had been rewrapped with new dates.

Steve Annesley Austen - At the Spar in Observatory, Cape Town, I bought oxtail so ripe that it nearly ran out of the room when I opened the bag.

Louise Brink Sander - We bought Cerelac baby cereal in March 2013 (from Woolworths). The expiry date was March 2012.

Asanda Omuhle Masinyane - Shoprite and Spar are the worst. I don't even look at Shoprite's butchery now.

Mthunzi Khumalo - I bought McCain Frozen Chips at Checkers on special. The expiry date was something like 2016 but the chips had black spots and smelled something awful.

The investigation

A recent investigation by the National Consumer Commission revealed a host of food labelling abuses, including:

Selling products that have reached their expiry date, such as baby milk formula, Joko tea and cheese
Products with no labelling, including eggs, biscuits, chocolate and mince meat
One product marked as another: A packet of boerewors from OK Foods labelled as “chargrill beef-flavour” burgers - Leonie Wagner

The irregularities:

Of the stores that were inspected in Mpumalanga and North-West, 84 were found to have label irregularities. These included:

- Tlokwe Local Municipality: Bailliepark Spar, Potch Spar, Potch Supersave, U-Save Ikageng

- Ventersdorp: OK Foods, Alpha Spar, Pick n Save, Alex Hyper Supermarket

- Mbombela: Shoprite Kabokweni, Boxer Superstores

- Bushbuckridge: Spar Ximhungwe, Shoprite Mkhuhlu, Boxer superstores Thulamahashe
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Sauce.
 
Fine them 25-50% of their annual profits, that's something they can understand & thus prevent.
 
ponder said:
Fine them 25-50% of their annual profits, that's something they can understand & thus prevent.
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Agreed.

If I was manager of a store, and I see that product X is not selling well, then I'll order less of the same product.

No sense in keeping up the same order without any adjustments, and making a loss that way.

If ordering less of a certain product is not possible, then maybe look at splitting the stock between two (or more) stores?
 
Yoh! Going to be more careful buying from these places, they better ALL catch a wakeup :twisted: .
 
The_Librarian said:
Agreed.

If I was manager of a store, and I see that product X is not selling well, then I'll order less of the same product.

No sense in keeping up the same order without any adjustments, and making a loss that way.

If ordering less of a certain product is not possible, then maybe look at splitting the stock between two (or more) stores?
Click to expand...

That's what my dad did in his store. He had an old till (not the new ones) but could be programmed for stuff like food/cigs etc

He would then (on a daily basis) tally up the different categories he set at. Over a period of 2-3 years he was able to predict slumps in sales and/or expected profit margins etc

Based on that he knew exactly when to buy stock, how long it would last and when to replenish it (cheese, milk, bread etc)

So much so, on some days he had exactly enough for the demand and if not, never sold bread (for example) older than 2 days because it never went unsold past that.
 
I bought a pack of ribs that labeled as "pork" from one of the PnP stores in Sandton, but in fact that was "beef". :eek:

that price of "beef" was R30/kg cheaper than "pork". :mad:
 
DreamKing said:
I bought a pack of ribs that labeled as "pork" from one of the PnP stores in Sandton, but in fact that was "beef". :eek:

that price of "beef" was R30/kg cheaper than "pork". :mad:
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Was old beef. Label meant to say 'This beef is 'porked'.... :D
 
I saw some "NICE" spiced chicken at a butchery at a special price cheaper than the fresh non spicy chicken. The butcher was standing there and I asked why the spicy chicken is cheaper. He explained that they repack the chicken two days before the sell by date and spice them beforehand but it's still good and they get no comebacks. The only thing that I could not understand was the the sell by date of the spiced chicken on the labels was for the 15th of August and the fresh chicken was the 14th of August. I just smiled and took the hopefully fresh chicken.
 
ponder said:
Fine them 25-50% of their annual profits, that's something they can understand & thus prevent.
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No - you will be punishing shareholders and employees not related to the offenses.

Just prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law - charge them with fraud and possibly manslaughter if someone died as a result.
 
Seriously said:
I saw some "NICE" spiced chicken at a butchery at a special price cheaper than the fresh non spicy chicken. The butcher was standing there and I asked why the spicy chicken is cheaper. He explained that they repack the chicken two days before the sell by date and spice them beforehand but it's still good and they get no comebacks. The only thing that I could not understand was the the sell by date of the spiced chicken on the labels was for the 15th of August and the fresh chicken was the 14th of August. I just smiled and took the hopefully fresh chicken.
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I don't buy spiced anything at a supermarket. This meat or chicken has reached it's sell by date and are just spiced and repackaged with a new sell by date.
 
Don't buy marinated meat? So don't buy biltong because that is what (store bought) biltong is... salted and cured old meat...

Meat getting spiced with salt lasts longer and when vacuum packed will last a lot longer. Just so the stu.. i mean misinformation does not spread :P

I can understand when they alter sell by dates but don't let your fears cloud your judgement of cured and salted meats they are far safer to me than any fresh unsalted meat...
 
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bgotapen said:
Don't buy marinated meat? So don't buy biltong because that is what (store bought) biltong is... salted and cured old meat...

Meat getting spiced with salt lasts longer and when vacuum packed will last a lot longer. Just so the stu.. i mean misinformation does not spread :P

I can understand when they alter sell by dates but don't let your fears cloud your judgement of cured and salted meats they are far safer to me than any fresh unsalted meat...
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MArinated in the sense of chicken and meat smothered by the marinade in the packets. I reckon that's the older meat that gets marinated.
 
I can confirm that Pick n Pay William Nicol (the flagship store) sells old chicken. I have bought old chicken 3 times in 2 years from them.

Most recently, I bought chicken breasts (not marinated) on Sunday. The expiry date is 2014-08-14 - today. Last night, one day before the supposed expiry, I wanted to use them, but they smell horrible. Definitely off.

This is the third time in 2 years that this has happened, always the same. So don't think it is only these little supermarkets out in the sticks - the flagship Pick n Pay store does it too.
 
I bought frozen chicken from Spar in Willow Way Shopping Centre, Lynnwood Road, Pretoria 2 month ago. The price label showed the packing date as 26-5-2014 and best before 26-6-2014. After removing the shrink wrap another shrink wrap appeared underneath showing another price label with a packing date of December 2013 and a BB date January 2014.
Spar was at least honest by not having removed the old label. Hehe :sick:
 
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