Tesco Frozen Food Not Frozen :(

UnderPressure

Hello everyone

Just thought I would share this little nugget from a trip to Mr T yesterday, I was stood at the checkout and noticed the aisle end freezer with some offers in so went to have a look, seen some DelMonte Orange Lollies (very nice BTW) so picked them up, now last week we went to Tesco after a day out to get some things for supper and I bought about a tenners worth of lollies and ice creams for the freezer.

This particular day the place was absolutley manic and I ended up in a huge queue for the self service tills, somthing that always annoys the hell out of me in my local tesco, you spend an hour or so loyally walking round filling a trolley to the brim they the biggest insult of all they expect you to stand in a massive line waiting and waiting to hand your hard earned cash over!!!!!!!!

By the time I got back to the car all the lollies and ice cream was a melted mess, with 3 young children who had been sat in the car with my other half waiting for me all very grizzly by now I could not be mithered going back in to argue the toss with CS so headed home.

I remembered this yesterday so after picking up the orange lollies I had a squeeze of the box they were cold but not frozen at all! I pointed this out to a sales assistant and told her my story from last week only to be told there is nothing they can do about that, so I said well you could ensure they are indeed frozen upon sale at least!!! She simply walked off mumbling something and left the defrosted items in the freezer for someone else to come along and buy, it was not just the lollies though they had pizza's and wedge's and something else that all were not frozen.

SO........... check your frozen food is actually frozen before you by it

tbw

UnderPressure wrote: »

Hello everyone


I remembered this yesterday so after picking up the orange lollies I had a squeeze of the box they were cold but not frozen at all! I pointed this out to a sales assistant and told her my story from last week only to be told there is nothing they can do about that, so I said well you could ensure they are indeed frozen upon sale at least!!! She simply walked off mumbling something and left the defrosted items in the freezer for someone else to come along and buy, it was not just the lollies though they had pizza's and wedge's and something else that all were not frozen.

SO........... check your frozen food is actually frozen before you by it

A while back, when Ben & Jerry's ice cream was on special offer, I got some out of the aisle end freezer only to find they were all soft and squishy! And I mean ALL - probably at least 70 or 80 of them. Also, the shelves below had pizza and prawns and they were all soft as well, I collared a manager and he immediately got staff to empty the freezer (he also got me 6 packs of rock solid ice cream from the store room!). It was obvious the freezer temperature was much too high and they should dump anything that defrsts.

Of course, I can't be sure that it was dumped - being cynical, it wouldn't surprise me if they put it on fast freeze in the store room and then brought it all out again!

vicki+1

i was once in sainsbury when the fire alarm went off. We were obviuosly alll evacuated and our shopping trolleys abandoned. Some people immediately got in there cars and left (blocking the fire engines getting in, but thats another story). Anyway i waited and when we all went back in the sa's were putting food from peoples trolleys back on the shelves, including frozen and chilled food. It had been sat there at least 45 minutes. I should have said something at the time, but i wrote a letter a letler afterwards expressing my concern. They said that it was a very new experience to them and that they had learnt from it

geordie_joe

vicki+1 wrote: »

Anyway i waited and when we all went back in the sa's were putting food from peoples trolleys back on the shelves, including frozen and chilled food. It had been sat there at least 45 minutes.

Many people take food out of the freezer, wander round the store for 45 minutes, spend another 5 at the checkout then take 20 minutes to get home.

I shop in Iceland for milk and I often see people getting their shopping delivered. They put a load of frozen stuff through the checkout, an assistant packs it into crates and tells the shopper it will be delivered in 3 hours.

How come it is such a crime for Sainsbury to leave stuff out for 45 minutes? If you get stuff delivered from any supermarket it is probably in the van longer than 45 minutes before you get it and put it into your freezer.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the people, who didn't immediately drive home after the alarm and went back into the shop, would have their items out of the freezer for longer than the ones that the staff put back in the freezer.

happyandy63

The vans are frozen and chilled so its not defrosted.

On a similar note alot of supermarket stuff that looks fresh has actually been frozen. Most fish and alot of the berries. I have bought berries that I thought were fresh but were ice cold. A little clue is when it says not suitable for home freezing. These days I don't buy any meat, fish or very much fruit or veg as the quality is not good enough.

I remember when I was stupid enough to ask the woman at the tescos fish counter which fish was best for sushi. She said "whats Sushi?"

zenseeker

happyandy63 wrote: »

I remember when I was stupid enough to ask the woman at the tescos fish counter which fish was best for sushi. She said "whats Sushi?"

What's odd about that? A) She may just have been covering Even if she was a trained in preparing and selling fish, doesn't make her an expert in Japanese cooking.

paulwf

Large stores will have their fridge and freezer temperatures logged by computer and they will also have an automatic alarm system for them. Customer assistants are usually overworked and aren't trained in the importance of food safety so if you don't get a suitable response from them find a supervisor who can then get the operations team to investigate.

Shops will probably be audited on their fridge and freezer temperatures and hopefully most would write off a freezer full of food - which is small change compared to weekly turnover - than risk customer safety.

vicki+1

geordie_joe wrote: »

Many people take food out of the freezer, wander round the store for 45 minutes, spend another 5 at the checkout then take 20 minutes to get home.

I shop in Iceland for milk and I often see people getting their shopping delivered. They put a load of frozen stuff through the checkout, an assistant packs it into crates and tells the shopper it will be delivered in 3 hours.

How come it is such a crime for Sainsbury to leave stuff out for 45 minutes? If you get stuff delivered from any supermarket it is probably in the van longer than 45 minutes before you get it and put it into your freezer.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the people, who didn't immediately drive home after the alarm and went back into the shop, would have their items out of the freezer for longer than the ones that the staff put back in the freezer.

There are food hygiene regulations that regulate how long things should be out of the food chain, thats why it matters

alwaysonthego_2

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geordie_joe

vicki+1 wrote: »

There are food hygiene regulations that regulate how long things should be out of the food chain, thats why it matters

So what are they? And what is the difference between an item being in a trolley for 45 minutes then put it your fridge at home and one being put back in the shops fridge after the same length of time?

pulliptears

From someone who worked in Iceland, and Tesco....

ALWAYS take frozen food from the bottom of the freezer

This ensures that its fully frozen and hasn't just been thrown back in by staff/customer etc.