Aldi Fresh Food Mouldy

cpwp

I bought 2 tomato packs from Aldi Friday night. One pack on Saturday was ok, The pack on Sunday was mouldy. When I looked for a use by date, there was not one on the package.
I took it back today and was told it was out of date. It was only good until Saturday. They deduced this by a code on the package 3506. I though all fresh food should have proper dates on them. As we were discussing this at the checkout, because they were not going to refund me nor replace them, a quick straw poll of other customers did not know what the expiry date was on their tomato products. Turns out good till Wednesday is 3603.
That is all there is, no use by or eat by, just 3603.
After a long conversation with the manageress, I got a replacement.
This is Which Best Supermarket 2013
Surely they should have proper dates on them, I would not have bought something on a Friday for use on Sunday if it clearly stated 31st August 2013. Friday was 30th August so they were selling food with 1 day shelf life.

HappyMJ

cpwp wrote: »

I bought 2 tomato packs from Aldi Friday night. One pack on Saturday was ok, The pack on Sunday was mouldy. When I looked for a use by date, there was not one on the package.
I took it back today and was told it was out of date. It was only good until Saturday. They deduced this by a code on the package 3506. I though all fresh food should have proper dates on them. As we were discussing this at the checkout, because they were not going to refund me nor replace them, a quick straw poll of other customers did not know what the expiry date was on their tomato products. Turns out good till Wednesday is 3603.
That is all there is, no use by or eat by, just 3603.
After a long conversation with the manageress, I got a replacement.
This is Which Best Supermarket 2013
Surely they should have proper dates on them, I would not have bought something on a Friday for use on Sunday if it clearly stated 31st August 2013. Friday was 30th August so they were selling food with 1 day shelf life.

It's fresh food which is exempt from having a best before date on it.

Well done for standing your ground and getting your money back.

The code is a week and day code week 36 day 3. So next time dig around and find the one with the highest number.

cpwp

Thanks for the reply.
I won't be buying fresh food from Aldi now that I know their food is such short dated. I did look in both boxes of tomatoes and they were all 3603. I expect tomatoes to last a lot longer than 3 days.

HappyMJ

cpwp wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.
I won't be buying fresh food from Aldi now that I know their food is such short dated. I did look in both boxes of tomatoes and they were all 3603. I expect tomatoes to last a lot longer than 3 days.

3 days is fairly average for a ripe tomato. Did you store them in the fruit bowl or in the fridge? They really should be in the fruit bowl. They will spoil much quicker in the fridge.

cpwp

I would normally expect about 5 days. Don't get to the shops much. These I bought Friday night and were gone Sunday. Other supermarkets would have replaced them or sold them cheap. To pay full price for an item about to expire is not what I call good practice. Lesson learnt I'm not buying fresh food from them any more.

HappyMJ

cpwp wrote: »

I would normally expect about 5 days. Don't get to the shops much. These I bought Friday night and were gone Sunday. Other supermarkets would have replaced them or sold them cheap. To pay full price for an item about to expire is not what I call good practice. Lesson learnt I'm not buying fresh food from them any more.

Well there's nothing else to buy except processed foods which we should be avoiding anyway so no need to visit any more. I spend a while checking the dates on the food and digging through the boxes to find longer dates. I can make a pretty big mess in the store chucking rubbish food to one side to find the freshest one in a box buried under the old ones. I was buying a bag of salad noticing it was already out of date the leaves were brown, it looked awful and so I brought it to the attention of a member of staff. They didn't care...but right at the back of the shelf behind these 10 bags of out of date salad there were fresh bags. You need to be very selective in that shop.

cpwp

True, but how many people know what 3603 means? Not the people at the checkout that I asked. They like me bought expecting a reasonable shelf life. Should you not buy at the end of the week as it is about to go off?

hgotsparkle

I've also noticed the lack of use by date on fruit and veg from Aldi.Ok, one can argue its more down to common sense over whether somethings on the turn whilst still on shelf but sometimes you just quickly pick something up, especially in a bargain place like Aldi.

cpwp

These are prepack tomatoes, so difficult to see in the packet. Seems they only replace when the old stock is out of date and because there was no date on it, I bought in good faith that it would last a few days. I don't get out to the shops much. To buy tomatoes on a Friday night which are mouldy by Sunday, is not my idea of fresh fruit and veg. If they had just replaced it, there would have not been a problem, but to say to me it's out of date based on a code, was saying it's my fault that I did not understand their codes. Beware buying fruit and veg towards the end of the week at Aldi, it's at the end of it's shelf life