Check those best before dates, shopper warns

A Calgary man is urging shoppers to check the best before dates on food and beverages.

Jerry Yin recently bought a four-pack of sparkling green tea at Safeway.

After drinking one of the bottles, he discovered the best before date was October 2013.

He took it back to Safeway and says he was offered a refund and a replacement bottle, but feels his complaint wasn’t taken seriously enough.

“I think money is not the point here,” says Yin. “I want them to basically pay a price so they can remember they made this mistake, so that they don’t make this same mistake again in the future.

“That’s really the point I was trying to make. But they just ignored me.”

Safeway says the product was discontinued in December, and admits it should have been removed from the shelves. However, the company says this type of incident doesn’t happen often.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says a best before date is not an expiry date concerning food safety, but rather an indication of quality and freshness. It is not illegal to sell a product past its best before date.

Those dates must appear on pre-packaged foods that will keep fresh for 90 days or less.

Expiry dates are not required on most items but are mandatory for the following products:

• Infant formula
• Formulated liquid diets (for people using oral or tube feeding methods)
• Foods for use in a very low-energy diet (foods sold only by a pharmacist and only with a written order from a physician)
• Meal replacements
• Nutritional supplements

For more information, visit the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website.