Canadian government food regulations say the date on labels must reflect when the meat was originally packaged.
Photo Credit: Radio-Canada

Grocery stores found changing dates on meat labels

Some retailers are changing the labels on meat packages, misleading consumers as to how fresh they are, according to an investigation by Radio-Canada. The French-language public broadcaster sent reporters with hidden cameras to grocery stores and interviewed butchers.

One butcher at a store in the province of Quebec said that every morning before opening time, packaged meats are taken off the shelves and sometimes repackaged with a new date on the label.

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Lab tests commissioned by Radio-Canada indicate some meats had levels of bacteria much higher than that considered to be safe. © Radio-Canada

‘If it smells OK….we repackage it’

“When the product is expired, when it’s three days old, we check to see if it looks OK and smells OK. Then we repackage it, and put it back on the shelf,” said one anonymous butcher.

“In our IGA (store), we stretch it one more day. Depending on the store, depending on the managers, sometimes they stretch it by another three days.”

Another butcher said “everyone is doing it…in all the stores.”

Food company says incidents ‘isolated’

This kind of repackaging is illegal in Canada. Federal food regulations say the date on the label must reflect when the meat was originally packaged.

IGA’s owner, Sobeys, says the incidents are isolated and it has reminded all of its stores follow government rules.

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