Whimsical Wednesday # 124
Welcome back to Whimsical Wednesday!
The day for you googled giggle that gets you over the hump that is Wednesday and sliding down into the weekend.
Today's joke isn't googled, it's a cartoon I cut from a newspaper many years ago, and relevant because of what was in the news here recently.
a large chain supermarket, one of the two supermarket giants, has recently been fined, again,
for having out of date stock on its shelves. Again.
not fresh produce, the items were pre-packaged sliced smallgoods in the dairy cabinets.
Two weeks out of date. TWO WEEKS!!
Their excuse was pretty pathetic, they'd had a long weekend....
Huh! Long weekends are three or four days at most, any stock that old should have been discovered before that weekend began.
Not so whimsical after all.
The day for you googled giggle that gets you over the hump that is Wednesday and sliding down into the weekend.
Today's joke isn't googled, it's a cartoon I cut from a newspaper many years ago, and relevant because of what was in the news here recently.
Two weeks out of date. TWO WEEKS!!
Their excuse was pretty pathetic, they'd had a long weekend....
Huh! Long weekends are three or four days at most, any stock that old should have been discovered before that weekend began.
Not so whimsical after all.
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Perhaps they use an Egyptian calendar.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that they hoped no-one would notice. Or the staff hoped no-one would notice.
ReplyDeleteI saw that story - and wish it was a rarity.
joeh; do those ancient hieroglyphic calendars even exist still?
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child; date checking of goods is supposed to happen on a regular basis, at least weekly as far as I know, but too often there just isn't time or there are too many products. One other problem is the night fill people not putting new stock behind the old so the old still-within-limits stock is sold first. A bigger problem is customers reaching behind for the newest stock and pulling it to the front of the shelf, pushing the old stock to the back. When stock is checked for use by dates not the whole shelf gets checked every time, only what is accessible at the front. This happens because staff doing these date checks often have other tasks that must be completed in a particular time frame.
It's a problem, and I think particular areas such as smallgoods and dairy products need to be a date check priority, but that just doesn't happen.
I wonder how we did survive in days of old when use-by dates hadn't been thought of or enforced; processed foods were few and far between; and preservatives were what we called jams and preserved home-grown fruits to be eaten out of season; when ice-chests (aka ice-boxes) were used instead of fridges; and hanging safes kept meats cool....
ReplyDeleteI alway check my dates but when I was working and was short on time I never did I often arrived home with old stock.
ReplyDeleteMerle.....
Our food supply is safe, but not safe enough.
ReplyDeleteLee; with processed foods few and far between, we probably survived a whole lot better. Without preservatives it was easier to see when food was past its use by date, milk would be sour, meat would be grey or green and so on.
ReplyDeleteMerle; I used to check the dates at the checkout and warn customers if something was close to the use by date. If something was out of date, I'd refuse to sell it to them, I'd ask them to go back and get a fresh item.
Joanne; we all need to be more careful and if the stores aren't pulling their weight, we need to let them know it isn't acceptable.
Love the cartoons and I quite believe that some of the out of date goods are deliberately left on the shelves in the hope consumers are in too much of a hurry to check. It they notice when they get home then they can't be bothered or don't have time to take them back.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason food seemed to keep better years ago than it does now. My first mother-in-law would keep the remains of the Sunday roast in an upper cupboard in her kitchen and not in the icebox. It just seemed to keep OK and nobody ever suffered ill effects. I wonder whether these days food is not all that fresh to begin with. I notice Woolworths no longer puts USE BY dates on its cut meats and yet IGA still do. Can't figure that one out at all.
A valid post, River.
ReplyDeleteA little while ago, I questioned the validity of "use by" dates, and found articles such as this http://www.grandparents.com/food-and-leisure/cooking-tips/food-expiration-dates
I always check the date stamps on perishables, and always, always go straight home after shopping - no stop offs - and refrigerate necessary items.
Mimsie; my mum used to keep lamb in the icebox, then the fridge when we got one and we ate cold lamb for days at lunch. I think in those days the lamb was older too, a hoggett instead of baby lamb, so less fatty. It's always the fat that goes bad first.
ReplyDeleteWoolworths have "best before" on their meat now instead of "use by".
I would hope that out of date items are NOT left on shelves deliberately, stores know they can be heavily fined for such practices.
Vicki; I don't think use by dates are necessary on many items, but there they are. I once published a post on use by dates, I'm not sure how far back in the archives it is, but it's there if you're interested. I think only perishables should be stamped, but with "packed on" NOT "use by", then we'd know just how old the stuff is.
I always bring food straight home too, but I've heard stories of things like milk being delivered to stores and left in the store delivery area too long because staff responsible are too busy to get it into the sub zero fridge.
Ew. This happens all the time, though! It drives me nuts! I swear I can't check every item in my $300 order. I save receipts.
ReplyDelete