PAST Its PRIME: Kansas Consumers Are Largely on Their Own to Make Sure They Don’t Buy Outdated Food.

By Deb Gruver, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Sep. 9–An Eagle investigation found that some food on Wichita store shelves is

Fuzzy strawberries. Moldy cheese. A box of popcorn old enough to advertise “Madagascar,” which hit movie screens in 2005, as “only in theaters.” Lunch meat six weeks past its “sell by” date. Eggs days past when they should have been sold. The Wichita Eagle bought these items — and more — during recent spot checks for foods past their “use by,”"sell by” and “best before” dates.

The Eagle checked 12 grocery stores in Wichita, spending up to an hour in each store to see how common it is to find outdated food.

We bypassed items on clearance, focusing instead on food at full price.

Among our findings:

–Every store but one had outdated food. We found none at Aldi Foods, 3130 W. Central.

–Some chains appeared to do better at rotating stock than others. Dillons and Wal-Mart, for example, fared better than Homeland and Checkers.

–Most of the foods wouldn’t have made consumers sick, but there is a question of quality.

We paid full price for items clearly past their prime.

“If you paid full price, you expect full quality,” said Bill Bishop, chairman of Willard Bishop LLC, a group of retail experts based near Chicago. “I think that out-of-code products raise a question in consumers’ minds. I do believe most consumers trust the store to be selling them wholesome, in-code product.”

Consumers might be surprised to know that it’s not illegal to sell items past the dates stamped on the container as “use by,”"sell by” or “best by.”

Only baby formula and eggs are inspected for dating — once a year — by staff from the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Most states follow federal rules that require dating on baby formula and some baby food.

The department also inspects stores for cleanliness once a year, spokeswoman Carole Jordan said.

That means consumers are largely on their own to make sure they don’t buy food past its dating.

Shoppers should pay closest attention to eggs and deli meat — or any protein, said Kelly Friesen, a food and nutrition specialist at the Sedgwick County Extension Service.

“You would definitely not want to consume eggs past their date because the shells are porous” and microscopic organisms could form, she said.

But consumers should pay attention to all dates, she said.

“If it’s past the expiration or sell-by date, I would definitely return it to the store and ask for a refund,” she said.

Wichita resident Bill Klobucher said he always checks dates when shopping, even though sometimes they’re hard to find.

Klobucher has learned, for example, that the date for cottage cheese is usually on the rim of the lid.

He said he doesn’t find outdated food too often, but puts it back when he does.

“Some of it comes pretty close to the date,” he said, “especially if it’s a ‘buy one, get one free’ special.”

Checking Wichita stores

What The Eagle found varied by store.

The most outdated foods in our spot check were at the Homeland at Harry and Georgetown.

We found few expired foods at two Wal-Marts. At Save-A-Lot at 13th and Grove, a store just a year old, we found only two containers of blueberry yogurt that had expired.

Of three Dillons stores checked, we found the most stale items at 13th and Waco. We checked one SuperTarget and found a few items just days past their dates.

At Checkers at 1915 E. Pawnee, The Eagle found muffin mix, scalloped potatoes and bagged salad past their dates and lunchmeat past its use-by date.

That store stocks shelves three times a week. When new food is put on the shelves, the food already there is supposed to be checked and removed if old.

“Obviously it sounds like we need to do better,” said manager Clinton Davidson. “There’s a lot more product dating than there used to be.”

Different kinds of dates

Food manufacturers use several types of dating: “use by,”"sell by” and “best before.”

Most refer to quality, not safety, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Except for a few products stocked by vendors–some soda and chips distributors, for example, handle their own products–grocery stores are responsible for making sure food is not expired.

One item that turned up at three separate stores during our checks was Starbucks Frappuccino. The oldest we found had a “best taste by” date of Nov. 6, 2006, or about 43 weeks ago. We bought it at full price — $5.99 — on Aug. 30 at the 21st and Amidon Homeland. On close inspection, bits of milk could be seen floating in each bottle.

Frappuccino is not stocked at the store level, said Homeland spokeswoman Kelly Epperson.

The Pepsi Bottling Group handles distribution of bottled Frappuccino in Wichita, Starbucks said.

“My guess is that it didn’t get rotated correctly,” Epperson said.

The beverage was at the front of a shelf.

Michelle Naughton responded via e-mail on behalf of North American Coffee Partnership, a joint venture between Pepsi-Cola North America and a subsidiary of Starbucks.

“The date on the bottle is not an ‘expiration’ date, but a ‘best taste’ date,” she wrote to The Eagle. “We suggest consuming the product on or before that indicator for the most optimum flavor. While the product you purchased was sold past its ‘best taste date,’ as long as the button on the cap is down and the tamper seal is in place, the product is still safe for consumption.”

She said that separation of the milk “is not harmful and usually dissipates when shaken.”

Starbucks, she said, “will use this opportunity to reinforce the importance of stocking the freshest product on store shelves.”

Mary Winn Settino, vice president for investor and public relations for Pepsi Bottling Group, said “it is unfortunate that you have found very isolated instances of product that is beyond its best-taste date. We have extensive processes in place to ensure that we are rotating our products.”

Friesen, the extension agent, said she “definitely wouldn’t recommend drinking” the Frappuccino from 2006.

But because of how food is made and packaged, “it probably wouldn’t make you sick unless it made you nauseated just from the sight of it.”

Stocking practices

Homeland workers are supposed to check stock when bringing in new merchandise, Epperson said. New products are stocked to the back.

In addition, stores follow a schedule for double-checking dates. For example, one day, workers might check all jars of spaghetti sauce.

Outdated foods are sent to a clearinghouse of sorts where food is destroyed, Epperson said.

Vendors give stores partial credit for that food.

Tim Rhodes, general manager of both Save-A-Lot stores in Wichita, was glad to hear that store didn’t have much outdated product.

He said many discount markets have a reputation for not being as clean as others, but Save-A-Lot has bucked that trend.

He said workers not only check dates but also what’s in the warehouse.

“When stocking, they’re supposed to check left to right and top to bottom,” he said.

For example, if a worker is stocking canned peas, he would check the products to the left and right and on top and below the peas. That might mean checking canned corn or canned sweet potatoes, even though that’s not what the worker is stocking.

Workers also check for items getting close to their dates and are supposed to put those foods on sale, Rhodes said.

“We should never be selling anything out of date,” he said.

Sheila Lowrie, a spokeswoman for Dillons, agreed.

“First of all, we want to thank you for bringing this to our attention,” she said.

Dillons’ policy is to remove items prior to expiration.

“In these instances, we did not meet our own strict practices,” she said.

Lowrie said she would discuss the issue with staff.

A statement from Wal-Mart indicated that stores would be notified about the expired products.

“Food safety is a top priority at Wal-Mart and we work closely with our store associates to educate them in the importance of product expiration dates,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said in an e-mailed statement.

Anna Goeppinger, a spokeswoman for Target, said the same. The food purchased at Target was a few days past its “best by” date.

“We take this situation very seriously as the safety of our guests is our top priority,” Goeppinger said in an e-mailed response. “After The Wichita Eagle contacted us with their findings, we confirmed and reinforced the several processes we have in place to ensure expired products are not on our shelves.”

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:dgruver@wichitaeagle.com].

Contributing: Annie Calovich, Deb Gruver, Jean Hays, L. Kelly, Suzanne Perez-Tobias, Joe Stumpe, Michael Roehrman

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