Is it just me or what?

I regularly have to take food back to a particular supermarket that has started to go off before well before the use by date. Today it is Cheshire Cheese use by Nov 6th opened at the weekend and now covered in green mould.

Never a week goes by without I'm marching products back and complaining. I used to throw stuff in the bin but one week the goods came to £12 and I thought enough was enough.

It is one particular supermarket and I know you'll be thinking well why don't you shop somewhere else, but it's so convenient for me that I keep going back.

The manager even suggested that it could be my fridge but if that was the case then surely food bought from elsewhere would go off prematurely too.

I think that the motto about getting the best for less gives the game away. How can you possibly get the best quality for the lowest prices?

I had the same problem not so long ago with one particular supermarket not far frm myself.

Like you it was difficult to go messing to another supermarket, but why should you have to. They have health regulations to maintain and if food is going off then they are not doing so!

My problems were with their milk, chicken and other fresh meats, cheese, chocolate being sold past it's date, dodgy cooked chicken!

Moon

Could be wrong Moon but looking at your location I bet its the same shop.

Particular problems are on stir-fry veg (need using at least 2 days before date), Coleslaw/florida salad ( starts fermenting well before date), chicken (stinks the fridge out even before wrapping opened) and yoghurts (lids bulging as starts to ferment).

:mad:

are you sure your fridge is working correctly and is cold enough. the house I used to live in had 2 fridges and in one fridge milk would always be off before the sell by date, not sure if it was because it was kept in the door of the fridge but some fridges do get much colder than others....

with reference to the fresh meat -

it arrives and 'should' be kept refridgerated as soon as it leaves the lorry. It doesn't always happen and gets left in cages in the holding bay - or worse the shop floor.

Frozen foods - same applies.

The times I have walked down the frozen food isle and seen a cage FULL of frozen food with no one unpacking it into the freezers just doesn't bear thinking about!

I won't buy anything from the deli counter either in this shop because we are aware of a few personal hygiene habits of staff working there (not all I hasten to add) but why risk it?

Moon

Originally posted by neeeeeeeeeek
are you sure your fridge is working correctly and is cold enough. the house I used to live in had 2 fridges and in one fridge milk would always be off before the sell by date, not sure if it was because it was kept in the door of the fridge but some fridges do get much colder than others....

As I said in my original post, this was put to me by the supermarket manager. It must be OK otherwise products bought in other shops would also be going off. He wasn't too pleased though when I suggested that maybe his fridge wasn't at correct temerature :rolleyes:

When we complained to the shop they mentioned the same thing - however we noted a step up in moving stock and the smelly chicken stopped and the milk is fine.

That to me indicates they found a problem, because if it was my fridge it would still be having problems with the food - which it is not.

Moon

We recently had a problem with milk being bought from a "convenience store" near Crookesmoor Road. It would go off two or more days before the use by date, whilst milk from other shops would sometimes last beyond the use by date. We never mentioned it to the shop, but started to get milk from right at the back of their fridge instead. This seemed to make the milk last longer.

Is the cheese you talked about wrapped / in an air tight container? Also, when you cut it, do you touch the cheese with your fingers? (And if so, are your hands clean?!) I once had some cheese with mould in the shape of a couple of my fingers... I realised then what the problem was ... ;)

All you can really do is some control test with food from other shops - even the same brand with the same date if possible. At least that way you'll know whether it's the shop, your fridge or the company who made the stuff...

Originally posted by Tony Ruscoe
.
Is the cheese you talked about wrapped / in an air tight container? Also, when you cut it, do you touch the cheese with your fingers? (And if so, are your hands clean?!) I once had some cheese with mould in the shape of a couple of my fingers... I realised then what the problem was ... ;)

...

What on earth are you suggesting Tony ;)

It was in its original wrapper but also then wrapped in clingfilm.
You don't have to keep cheese in an airtight container do you?? because I don't.

Anyhow I was just interested to see how many other people this might happen to.

hello, i think that petersfield is a lot better than sheffield and that you all smell really bad ha ha ha.:thumbsup:

hello, i think that petersfield is a lot better than sheffield and that you all smell really bad ha ha ha.

Grrr . . . :P Your not a southener are you?? lolol


I always have a problem with sheeps cheese going mouldy. I only had it for a day and it went mouldy!! :(

Now then, that's strange.

This morning at work, we were talking about how veg from a particular supermarket doesn't seem to stay fresh for long. I strongly suspect that this is the same supermarket (but not the same branch) as Moon uses. It's not just me, a couple of other people at work have to throw things away because they don't last very long.

Moon - thinking back to my days working in a supermarket, you're allowed to leave cages of frozen food for 30 minutes before you have to worry. Some items can be left for an hour, but because we were to thick to remember which ones these were, we used to stick to the 30 minute rule.

A common reason for any chilled/frozen foods going off before their use by dates can be due to cold chain abuse.

Easy to recognise on products such as pre-packed meat because the packets blow and the meat goes dried and discoloured.

Not had any problems myself with use by dates.

Been in my 'favourite' store again today. First item I picked up was rotton. Ok it was only a pumpkin but some people actually eat these. The back of it had caved in and it was stinky. Needless to say, I handed it in to the lad stacking the veg.

Move on to the chill counter for some four cheese sauce. First tub I picked up had yesterdays date on ie 20 Oct. Took it to customer service counter to be greeted by a rather rude woman who gave me the impression that I was interrupting her cosy little chat with her collegue. No explanation, no word of thanks just 'oh'.

Complete rest of my shopping and go through checkout. Check bill as overcharging is common practice here too. Find that I have been charged for 2 packs of cuppa soup instead of BOGOF.

Wait 5 minutes for assistance then another 5 for assistant to check that I'm not telling lies. Yes I am correct but not an apology or explanation in sight.

How I hate this store :evil: :evil: :evil:

I can think of hundreds More Reasons Not To Shop At This Store.
Regular Safeway customers will have a rude awakening when Ken gets his hands on their supermarket.

Blood pressure sky high.

safeway takes decades to get served. I presume your slagging off my favourite shop where they are much faster and have more tills. maybe Ken will get decent operators.