Out of date food

chunkymonkey1983

Hi all,

Searching through the forums, I have found people commenting on Tesco, ASDA, et al selling items beyond their BBE date from their shelves, however, I was served out of date consumables over the counter at a local McDonalds outlet. I have raised my concern with this directly with the branch, and they asked me a stumping question: "How would you like me to remedy this situation?". Normally, I am the one telling them how to rectify the problem, but I am actually at a loss of where to take this. So far, I have requested to speak to someone at Head Office and will do so on Monday afternoon... As far as I can see, the fact that they served me food products that were clearly dated is a breach of their H&S regulations, but I can't find anything on HSE or Food Standards Agency websites. Can you help?

Also, what would you consider to be suitable remedial action for this situation, as we unfortunately only realised this once some of the contents had been consumed and my son (3 years old) and pregnant sister-in-law were unwell. I have challenged the Store Manager too, as several bacterium and viruses can be contracted from out of date or uncooked food (eg e-Coli, salmonella, botulism, etc)

Any help would be appreciated.

Ben

terryw

chunkymonkey1983 wrote: »

Hi all,

Searching through the forums, I have found people commenting on Tesco, ASDA, et al selling items beyond their BBE date from their shelves, however, I was served out of date consumables over the counter at a local McDonalds outlet. I have raised my concern with this directly with the branch, and they asked me a stumping question: "How would you like me to remedy this situation?". Normally, I am the one telling them how to rectify the problem, but I am actually at a loss of where to take this. So far, I have requested to speak to someone at Head Office and will do so on Monday afternoon... As far as I can see, the fact that they served me food products that were clearly dated is a breach of their H&S regulations, but I can't find anything on HSE or Food Standards Agency websites. Can you help?

Also, what would you consider to be suitable remedial action for this situation, as we unfortunately only realised this once some of the contents had been consumed and my son (3 years old) and pregnant sister-in-law were unwell. I have challenged the Store Manager too, as several bacterium and viruses can be contracted from out of date or uncooked food (eg e-Coli, salmonella, botulism, etc)

Any help would be appreciated.

Ben

What were the out of date consumables?

chunkymonkey1983

Cartons of milk that were sold as part of the meal deal. BBE date was clearly shown on the top of the bottles and showed they were a couple of days over...

Purpledaisy_2

How much milk did they consume in order to feel unwell from it ?

Half a mouthful of sour milk normally does it for most people and its spat straight back out !

pulliptears

Its not going to kill you, or do you any real harm. Suitable remedial action would be an apology and a refund of the meal.

TEDDYRUKSPIN

The above is actually correct! Any food - specifically for consumption should be removed from the shelf and discarded when the due date has expired. No companies are allowed to sell this without a warning!

Although the above person did not drink it or obtain food poisoning, this should not have happened!

All you can do is write a complaint letter to the McDonalds head office. All you will get is a thank you letter with some vouchers for meals etc.

As for the branch, the manager will get a big slap on the back!!!!

stevenhp1987

Use by/Sell by: MUST NOT be sold.

BBE: CAN BE SOLD after the date, although I think the customer has to be made aware that they are out-of-date e.g. reduction sticker, label or simply being told.

mrcol1000

Milk in McDonalds is pasteurized to the point where it is just water so there is no chance of anyone getting ill. If it has a BEST BEFORE then it would have been fine to drink after the date although McDonalds really should have binned it before then because of Best Pratice.
You should complain to your local council's environmental health department who can investigate and force McDonalds to take action so that it never happens again and the council may monitor them to ensure it doesn't. If they think its serious enough and its happened before they could even prosecute.
I would do that. Unless its compensation your after......

chocdonuty

It's happened to me before in Mcdonalds,my milk was out of date, I could tell by the look of it, never mind tasting it_pale_ I simply took it back to the counter and replaced it, job done