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I have had cryovac-wrapped meats in my freezer and they generally get used within six months (poultry) and a year (beef). Any longer and regardless of how well-wrapped they are, there is some indication of freezer-burn, in which case, out it goes.
I see this as throwing away perfectly good food.
Why not just cut the freezer burn off?
Or put the food in a crock pot with some kind of liquid?
Just my opinion.
From the USDA:
"Freezer burn is a food-quality issue, not a food safety issue. It appears as grayish-brown leathery spots on frozen food. It occurs when air reaches the food's surface and dries out the product. This can happen when food is not securely wrapped in air-tight packaging. Color changes result from chemical changes in the food's pigment. Although undesirable, freezer burn does not make the food unsafe. It merely causes dry spots in foods. Cut away these areas either before or after cooking the food. When freezing food in plastic bags, push all the air out before sealing."
How much would your groceries cost if the store had to hire staff to go through every day and read the date on every product? It's more efficient to let the customers cull the stock, even if they have to discount expired products.
They don't hire special people to read the shelves. Clerks are supposed to read the shelves when they restock, restock to the rear (so the older goods are up front) and they restock at least every other day. For a large supermarket to have expired goods on their shelves is wrong wrong wrong.
I've stopped going to a local supermarket because I started finding lots of expired stuff because I wasn't checking dates on normal every day gotta have items like butter, eggs and yogurt and milk. After several of my complaints to the cashiers and then to management, the problem was not addressed, so it was time to find a new store.
That store is sloppy and careless and hires workers who they don't train, and the store shows it. All their frozen foods are covered in thick frost..... I'll drive 3 miles to get a well maintained store where I'm not wasting my money buying bad food.
They don't hire special people to read the shelves. Clerks are supposed to read the shelves when they restock, restock to the rear (so the older goods are up front) and they restock at least every other day. For a large supermarket to have expired goods on their shelves is wrong wrong wrong.
I've stopped going to a local supermarket because I started finding lots of expired stuff because I wasn't checking dates on normal every day gotta have items like butter, eggs and yogurt and milk. After several of my complaints to the cashiers and then to management, the problem was not addressed, so it was time to find a new store.
That store is sloppy and careless and hires workers who they don't train, and the store shows it. All their frozen foods are covered in thick frost..... I'll drive 3 miles to get a well maintained store where I'm not wasting my money buying bad food.
If they do not have customer survey forms by the customer relations desk, try going to the website and, giving the exact store, present your complaints there. My local Shop Rite has forms that you mail in and they go directly to the franchise owner. This happens because sometimes the manager of the store is not doing his job or covering for inept employees.
In these days, where there are so many qualified and good workers unemployed these lazy and uncaring employees can be replaced without a lot of effort. Of course, it could be that the manager is a piece of work and as a result morale is down. I know you're fed up, but perhaps see if you can report this to someone higher up. Think of it as your service to the community. It's horrible that people have to shop there. How about the people in the area with no cars? This could be a health hazard.
They don't hire special people to read the shelves. Clerks are supposed to read the shelves when they restock, restock to the rear (so the older goods are up front) and they restock at least every other day. For a large supermarket to have expired goods on their shelves is wrong wrong wrong.
Different stores must have different ways of doing it. When we get our delivery we do not check dates. We have too much mdse to get to the shelves in very little time. Stock is supposed to be rotated with new going behind old, but often the clerks just want to get the stock out and don't bother with the rotation. We do have clerks that spend x number of hours per week doing nothing but checking shelves for out of date mdse, we even have a schedule as to which counters get checked and when. Even so it's very nearly impossible to keep up with, and our grocery dept is not even that large.
Different stores must have different ways of doing it. When we get our delivery we do not check dates. We have too much mdse to get to the shelves in very little time. Stock is supposed to be rotated with new going behind old, but often the clerks just want to get the stock out and don't bother with the rotation. We do have clerks that spend x number of hours per week doing nothing but checking shelves for out of date mdse, we even have a schedule as to which counters get checked and when. Even so it's very nearly impossible to keep up with, and our grocery dept is not even that large.
I don't know what the difference is, but maybe our local store has a great turnover. They do do a lot of business. They have a huge bank of registers and I would say they average, during the day on weekdays, about seven being open. I rarely have to wait on line long. The place is unionized. The people who work there all seem polite, are trained to answer questions - all of them, and some are actually friendly. There was one customer service girl with an attitude and they got rid of her in short time. Sometimes there is luck involved in these things, I think. It must be hard to manage a big store of so many little items.
As a former Grocery connected person there was a time way back (not sure about today) that clerks were responsible for stocking a particular section (tables) and they would know the slow or fast moving items. Rotation was a norm back then.
Also there was the time that a sales rep from a company would come by the store and check his product as to the (Code Date). If there was a substantial amount on the shelves and also in the back room he would take a count and authorize the store to sell at a reduced price giving the store a credit invoice. Some times an item might be pulled from the shelves and tossed into the dumpster out back also with a credit invoice issued. This was moreso with frozen foods and package goods. Bound to be some here who have at one time or another purchased a frozen food item that just did not have the right taste. (Could have thawed and refroze at some point). Removal would deplete the old stock and thus new stock would be ordered for the shelves.
Even if stock is rotated, it gets mixed around by customers, and the older stock does not necessarily remain in front. There is no way that a grocer is going to pay someone to read the use-by date on every single item. It is laughably unreasonable for a customer to expect that every single expired item on the shelves will be manually sorted out every day, and if you came into my store and expected my minimum wage stockers to guarantee that nothing would be expired, I would invite customers like you to shop elsewhere, and see if you can do better, and waste some other store manager's time with such frivolous complaints..
Stock is not rotated for YOUR benefit. It is cost-effective to rotate stock, in order to sell as much as possible of the older product, before it expires and becomes unsalable.
A customer shopping in a self-serve store has the responsibility to verify the suitability of a product before taking it to the checkout. That means YOU.
How much would your groceries cost if the store had to hire staff to go through every day and read the date on every product? It's more efficient to let the customers cull the stock, even if they have to discount expired products.
The food might cost more... but food's so ridiculously cheap here due to gov't subsidiaries that we have room to raise the prices. Especially if it means more people are employed in the process.
The food might cost more... but food's so ridiculously cheap here due to gov't subsidiaries that we have room to raise the prices. Especially if it means more people are employed in the process.
13% of Americans receive food stamps, which are used to buy food at retail prices. There are poor people who depend on that. One out of eight Americans are already eating food that your taxes are paying for. You did already know that, right?
Paying wages to people to sort through maybe a trillion grocery items every day peering at smudged fine print for use-by dates in hard-to-find locations on the container? When the shopper can look for himself, if he cares about the use-by date, which most people don't? How is that "more productive" than digging holes in the ground and filling them back in?
If you put ten million people to work checking use-by dates, where does the money come from to pay them all wages for that? Ten million could do the job, provided each one checked 100,000 dates in an 8-hour shift. A box of Jell-O has a use-by date two years ahead. Somebody would have to pick up that box 730 times to check it, and then put it neatly back on the shelf each time. At a rate of 3.5 boxes per second. For minimum wage. If we slowed the job down to one item every five seconds, it would take the entire labor force of the USA working full time to check every food package every day.
And if they miss one, you march off in a huff and go to a more efficient grocery store.
13% of Americans receive food stamps, which are used to buy food at retail prices. There are poor people who depend on that. One out of eight Americans are already eating food that your taxes are paying for. You did already know that, right?
Paying wages to people to sort through maybe a trillion grocery items every day peering at smudged fine print for use-by dates in hard-to-find locations on the container? When the shopper can look for himself, if he cares about the use-by date, which most people don't? How is that "more productive" than digging holes in the ground and filling them back in?
If you put ten million people to work checking use-by dates, where does the money come from to pay them all wages for that? Ten million could do the job, provided each one checked 100,000 dates in an 8-hour shift. A box of Jell-O has a use-by date two years ahead. Somebody would have to pick up that box 730 times to check it, and then put it neatly back on the shelf each time. At a rate of 3.5 boxes per second. For minimum wage. If we slowed the job down to one item every five seconds, it would take the entire labor force of the USA working full time to check every food package every day.
And if they miss one, you march off in a huff and go to a more efficient grocery store.
Reps to you. ^^ People, just take responsibility to check the use-by dates yourself. That is what I do.
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