Offensive Customer Services at Tesco and 19 Months out of date food.

TowcesterWolf

I'm staggered at the way you were treated, i would have expected them to sweeten you up to ensure you didnt take the complaint to trading standards!

basmic

Tesco's Head Office
Tesco House,
Delamare Rd,
Cheshunt,
Hertfordshire,
EN8 9SL

PurplePow

Correct me if I'm wrong but selling something after a Use By date is against the law, but selling something after it's Best Before date in the reduced section is not?

raphanius

remind tesco its illegal to sell out of date food...its as simple as that.

JAG

GemmaC25 wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but selling something after a Use By date is against the law, but selling something after it's Best Before date in the reduced section is not?

I think that is correct.

amandada

GemmaC25 wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong but selling something after a Use By date is against the law, but selling something after it's Best Before date in the reduced section is not?

You're correct in your thinking and this is the reason why....

a "use by" date is used in the case of what are known as "high risk" foods, such as meat, poultry, dairy products etc, where if the food is consumed beyond that date, it is likely to be (in legal terms) "unfit for human consumption" and likely to cause harm to the consumer
It is an offence under the Food Safety Act 1990 to sell, or offer for sale a food beyond the "use by" date.

A "best before" date is used in the case of "lower risk" foods, such as bread, biscuits, tinned goods etc. This is a quality issue. For example a loaf of bread a couple of days beyond its "best before" date, is likely to be a bit stale, or even have some mould growth. Whilst not the most pleasant thing to be eating, it won't cause harm to the consumer, the product is simply not at its best.
Whilst it's legal to sell or offer to for sale an item beyond the "best before" date, the seller does not have a legal leg to stand on, if the item is subsequently found to be (in legal terms) "unfit for human consumption".
However, if the food is found to be "not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the consumer" (again, legal terminology) then it is still not an offence.

Reducing the price of a foodstuff beyond the "best before" date does not afford the seller any extra protection, nor does it take away the consumer's legal rights under the Food Safety Act 1990

amandada

raphanius wrote: »

remind tesco its illegal to sell out of date food...its as simple as that.

actually it's not-see my previous post ( I was a food safety enforcement officer)

luridhue

basmic wrote: »

Tesco's Head Office
Tesco House,
Delamare Rd,
Cheshunt,
Hertfordshire,
EN8 9SL

Thank You

Also, with the nuts the staff were trying to fob us off by saying that you couldn't see the date... they shut up when quietly reminded by the section manager (whether she was correct or not I cannot say) that it was illegal to sell goods without the date. The Beef Jerky had a Use by date, the nuts had a Best Before.

One other thing was that the Assistant Manager said that 'in a store as large as this one there would likely be a couple of items that are past their use-by date and we shouldn't look too much into it.' My reply was that we actually found both items within one 3 foot wide shelf!

amandada

The assistant manager is needing his backside kicked! (at the very least!) His lame argument that " in a store as large as this one....." is riduculous in the extreme....they have the number of staff appropriate to the size of the store so bang goes that argument.
Hopefully you got the asst manager's name, and can I suggest a call to Tesco HO to ask the name of a person to address your letter to, rather than just addressing it to head office.
A much more appropriate response from the manager would have been to be on his knees apologising, promising to find out what happened and why, and appropriate re-training for the member of staff concerned.

adamhodg

That is a shocking comment from an Assistant Manager!.
We have rotation checks all the time at my store.
They have set weeks where they rotate all of the grocery stock and check all the dates.
Various items are found out of date are removed and thrown away.
Things can be missed but im very surprised at the poor attitude of the assistant manager(if it was).