Mom Blogger Finds Cartloads Of Expired-Date Food At Popular Grocer
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A suburban mom and blogger found cartloads of expired food on the shelves of a major grocery store chain.
The problem is so common that CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker was able to fill her own basket with expired food – in just a few minutes.
Unbelievable and outrageous is how Jill Cataldo describes the quantity of date-expired food at her local Dominick's.
"I'm very disappointed," she said. "You should be able just to pull something off the shelf and know that it's fresh and know that it's safe to feed your family."
The popular blogger says she got a complaint from a reader and then took a home video camera to two stores. At the Dominick's in Carpentersville, she says she found 435 items that should have been pulled from shelves. The products included salad dressing, cereal and barbecue sauce.
The findings were similar at the Lake in the Hills store.
"We didn't even look at the meats," Cataldo said. "This was just the dry goods aisles in the center of the store."
Some of the items she found dated back to 2008 to the middle of last year.
CBS2 also found expired foods at Dominick's at one of the chain's stores in Fox River Grove and at two locations on Chicago's North Side.
CBS 2 found outdated salad dressing, pickles, cookie mix, boxed side dishes and baby food.
Why would a store sell any expired products? A Dominick's manager declined to comment, but corporate said the items should not have been in stock.
"We are displeased with the out-of-date products found at our stores," Dominick's said in a written statement. "A high level and highest priority team has been assembled to immediately address these issues."
It's not illegal to sell expired products; expiration dates are simply a recommendation from manufacturers.
