Query Regarding an incident due to shop selling out of date goods.

weesarahg

Last night I purchased a packet of Fox's Party Ring biscuits from the grocery shop round the corner from me. I took them home and opened them & had one, i bit into one and it knocked half of my front tooth out and chipped the other front tooth. I looked at the date on the biscuits and it tuned out the sell by date on them was 3rd November 2012. This means the biscuits that I was sold were 2 months out of date and because of this it resulted in them hardening and me loosing half my tooth. I wasn't aware that these biscuits were out of date when buying them as i normally only check the dates on eggs, milk, meat etc and as they were full price i would assume that they were fine.

I was back in the shop again today just to make sure that this wasn't a one off, and it turns out they have biscuits there on sale with the date 27-10-12 on them. I've took photographs of all this incase they need proof. I havent informed anyone from the shop about this because i'm afraid it will just give them a chance to check for their past date goods and get rid of them.

With regards to loosing half my tooth & chipping the other one (my two front teeth) I was able to get an emergency appointment with my dentist today and spent 45 mins getting this fixed. I've now a dental bill to pay and I've also lost out on half a days wages in work for taking the time to go to this appointment.

I have sent an email of complaint to the email given on their website. Can anyone advise if i would be entitled to any compenstation for this? I don't mean a claim, i mean would i be compensated for my bill and loss of wages?

Your help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

sharnad

It's okay to sell things after best before date. You
Might get something for the company but I don't think so your tooth may have already been week for it to chip and you can't prove a biscuits did it

coshboy

I'm pretty sure that biscuits are best before, in which case it's just advisory and it's not illegal to sell.



Best Before
Best Before means the food should not have significantly deteriorated before the date given. The date will usually be a particular day such as "Best Before 30 MAY 2011". It may not include the year. You will also see "Best Before End", but this will then only show a month and year, so "Best Before End 05 2011".This is for food with a longer shelf life.

There may be a note saying "keep refrigerated" or "keep in a cool dry place", you should do this. Also, if told to "keep refrigerated after opening" you should do so, and remember that once opened, the food will not last as long.

It is generally safe to eat food after a Best Before date, and (except for eggs) food can still be sold legally after that date, though it may not still be good to eat.

Use By
Use By is an instruction. It must be used for food which is highly perishable and likely to be harmful if eaten after it has spoiled. It is the date when the food will be reliably safe to eat.

It must always give a particular date "Use By 22 MARCH" and may include the year too; "Use by 22 03 2011". There will be instructions for storage with a "Use By" date too, but these will almost always be to "keep refrigerated". Remember - it is important to get food back into refrigeration as soon as possible after buying it, try not to shop at lunchtime if you can't get cold items to the fridge before evening.

It is an offence to sell food after the "Use By" date.

There you are, not illegal so it would be up to the shop or manufacturer if the compensated you in any way IMO.

How do you know you tooth wasn't going anyway? I nearly lost a tooth after biting in a chilli seed from some chilli sauce -just bad luck.

notanewuser

By definition, biscuits soften when they go off, not harden.

geordie_joe

weesarahg wrote: »

Last night I purchased a packet of Fox's Party Ring biscuits from the grocery shop round the corner from me. I took them home and opened them & had one, i bit into one and it knocked half of my front tooth out and chipped the other front tooth. I looked at the date on the biscuits and it tuned out the sell by date on them was 3rd November 2012. This means the biscuits that I was sold were 2 months out of date and because of this it resulted in them hardening and me loosing half my tooth.

The sell by date has no meaning, except to let the shop staff know the shop wants them sold by that date. It does not mean they are out of date, or gone hard.

I suspect the date you are actually talking about is the Best Before date. This is just the minimum date the manufacturer says the biscuits will be at their best. If unopened they could last for years after that date.

If you write to Foxs they may give you a goodwill payment, but I doubt you have a claim. The date was on the packaging so it is your fault you did not look at it.

Also, can you prove your tooth was not defective? Maybe it was and it would have chipped the next time you bit into something hard anyway. You have to bite really hard to break a healthy tooth, and most people stop biting long before they reach the point where the tooth will break.

If I were you I would write to foxs politely explaining what happened and accept anything they offer you. But they don't have to offer anything. Because you are saying you ate out of date biscuits and they damaged your teeth because they were out of date. And they will say "if they were out of date, you should not have bitten into them".

geordie_joe

notanewuser wrote: »

By definition, biscuits soften when they go off, not harden.

Not quite true. If you leave a biscuit exposed to air for a long time it will absorb moisture from the air and go soft. Once there is moisture in the biscuit bacteria can breed and cause it to go off.

If biscuits are in a sealed packet with little or no air, or a gas filled packet then they can go harder as they go off.

However, I doubt 2 months after the best before date is long enough for a biscuit to go hard enough to break a tooth.

lindseykim13

We've got party rings past their best before in the cupboard by more than 2mths-nothing wrong with them.
Places like b&m often sell things past or close to their best before date.

You might get a refund as you weren't aware they were past the bbd and perhaps an apolgy/small gift card but doubt you'll get your dental costs back very much.

redfox

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weesarahg

I only look at the date on milk / bread / meat / eggs. Not on biscuits crisps and really any packaged food. As i mentioned previously, i wasn't after a claim, i'm just wanting a bit of compensation for my dental bill.

And for the record, the biscuits were rock hard, It was like biting into a stone, i'm not even joking. Also, the teeth that were damaged were healthy, the dentist even done x rays to see if there was anything that could've been the cause of the fracture & the chip and they were perfect.

geordie_joe

weesarahg wrote: »

I only look at the date on milk / bread / meat / eggs. Not on biscuits crisps and really any packaged food.

There's no other way to say this, so here goes..........That's your fault, the information was there and you chose not to read it, nobody to blame but you.

weesarahg wrote: »

As i mentioned previously, i wasn't after a claim, i'm just wanting a bit of compensation for my dental bill.

But if you had read the information provided you would not have had a dental bill

weesarahg wrote: »

And for the record, the biscuits were rock hard, It was like biting into a stone, i'm not even joking.

As I said earlier, most people, when biting something hard, would stop biting before their teeth break.

weesarahg wrote: »

Also, the teeth that were damaged were healthy, the dentist even done x rays to see if there was anything that could've been the cause of the fracture & the chip and they were perfect.

Well something caused it, and if the biscuit really was that hard then it can only be your determination to continue biting something that was harder than your teeth.

ThumbRemote

Consult a solicitor.

The shop may have been negligent in selling out of date biscuits. In this case you will have a valid personal injury claim against them. However only a solicitor is likely to have the expertise necessary to know whether this is likely to succeed.