According to documents obtained through an access to
information request, 12 supermarkets have
been given a total of 14 citations over the past two years for changing expiry
date labels on food, reports Dr.Doug Powell on his Barfblog website.
The changed dates vary from as little as
one day to as much as two months, and ranged from raw chicken to bacon, mussels
and salmon.
"There are foods you don't mess
with," nutritionist Stephanie Cote said. "Meat, poultry and fish
especially."
Jean-Christophe Cognault, who manages
another Montreal-area grocery store, said "the practice is much more
common than these 12 supermarkets.
"It's just that most of them are
never caught."
Cognault used to work for a large
supermarket. He shared a few tricks that grocers use to modify best-before and
expiry dates.
"For steak, you cut off the meat
that's gone brown on the sides and repackage it," he said.
