Food Safety

[shetlandpeat]

Yup, here we go...

 

There has been a recent court case in which a general store has been fined 2 grand for storing and offering for sale sub standard food...

 

I do remember the ootadaties you were able to get at a fraction of the price. In them days stuff seemed to survive past any date set for it.

 

Nowadays you cannot tell....

 

But, a mouldy pie is really bad. There was an explanation that the manager was not due in till 9 ish, and that is when they were inspected.

BUT...the manager knew these products would be out of date b4 he started and before he left the shop the day before, he failed in his duties to protect his customers....it was the poor management that was fined.

 

The mouldy pie, well, I ask you....there was a lame excuse, which only showed that there was no cleaning of product shelving, or even inspection, for something to go mouldy in a fridge takes a while.

 

To gamble with folks health and to abuse any trust your customers have in your products is unforgivable....

 

You are probably more likley to die from food poisoning than Swine Flu....

 

The message is folks, check what you are buying, yunguns and the elderly can really react badly to poor food hygiene.....

 

I hope this manager makes a public appology and reasure his customers that there will not be a repeat and systems have been put in place to prevent such a problem occuring.

 

Profit before safety is not good practice, and could cause serious illness..

[Para Handy]

He is the only one to get charged so far with the offence. He is not the only one doing it, some of the shops sell other stuff at a reduced price? bent tins, burst packets ect. There a lot of silly folk who will buy anything if they think is cheap or some sort of bargain

[Njugle]

There's a difference between a mouldy pie and a nearly out of date packet of peanuts though PH, unless you've found another shop that is selling out of date stuff like pies. I haven't. I do buy stuff that is nealry out of date and obviously of no concern, like dried goods. Heck , you want to see some of the delights you can pick up at Tesco of an evening, yum!

 

The shop manager in question here set a track record in his early days of selling black bananas as "sandwich bananas", which was shrewd, but unusual.

He did however get reprimanded at that time too and an anecdote I can relay firsthand is that we used to do him 'commercial favours' for want of a better description, nothing dodgy, just preferential (for a quiet life), and for this he would reward us with out of date pies or sausage rolls, and a piece of fruit! We couldn't eat the pastries and usually dumped them. He started giving us pastries after a certain incident in the shop, as I now recall... but that's another story.

[sheepshagger]

I think you will find that most shops sell products past their best before date, perfectly legal and no discernable reduction in quality. Selling something past its use by date is illegal. The use by date is a time from packaging set by the food standards agency and products are considered unsafe after this date.

hope this clears up some confussion for you.

[shetlandpeat]

^^^ Spot on....

 

Though tis best not to give delecate folk ootadaties...

[Para Handy]

I was not making any excuses for him. He has been done for breaking the law.

And as I have also got things from Tescos and other shops that were at reduced prices.

But I’m responsible for some of that risk for buying it. I have eating some stuff out of tins that was over year by its sell buy date, and I’m still here fruit yogurt to.

I was wondering just how well spread in Shetland this practise is and how much goes unreported. People who just can’t be bothered with the hassle of reporting it. One wonders how they managed to keep there pies and meat in the old days before vac pack and chill cabinets. There was no sell by or use by dates then. One just had to use there sense of smell. Not so easy with meat ect everything wrapped in clingfilm these days

[Guest Anonymous]

On the subject of 'use by dates'. Can anybody tell me why items such as salt, which after all is a preservative, have a use by date on it. It's something that has always baffled me a bit.

[MJ]

food safety laws require a use by date on all "foods", salt sold other than for food use does not have a date.

Honey which is known to still be good and safe to eat after 2000years is also covered by this. unfortunately the powers that be thing that a date of 2-5years is more appropriate.

[Para Handy]

I saw tampons on the reduced stand at Tescos one week, the box was still sealed

My sister and one of our best friends just looked at me and I looked at them.

And for the love of me. we could not come up with any reason at first to sell them like this.

I then suggested to them that it might be because they were second hand, and just walked on

[sleepychef]

There a bargain and no strings attached.

 

Sorry...

[sleepychef]

Also to clear stuff up. Not all food has a sell before date, some like salt and honey as mentioned in a previous thread have a best before date. These items still cannot be sold in retail outlets and sell by dates: if a date says 08/09 then it cannot be on the shop shelf on the 08/09 so says the EHO/FSA.