Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection

Feb. 09, 2009

The county government has wrapped up its latest investigation of the sale of outdated food and the results are in: 21 local stores are facing $59,000 in fines for failing to remove expired items from their shelves.

The Department of Consumer Protection acted following the recent inspection of 46 food stores. This was the third round in a series of comprehensive countywide inspections that began in late 2007. While overall, Westchester stores continue to do better than in the initial round of inspections, the latest check finds the problem still persists at some stores.

We want to make sure that consumers get their money’s worth when they shop for food - - especially in these tough economic times.  We’ll continue cracking down on the sale of outdated items. It’s not too much to ask that consumers be able to consistently find fresh, unexpired food on the shelves of their local grocery. 

The stores with the worst results were Pathmark in Port Chester with 271 outdated items and Whole Foods Market in White Plains with 156.

Singled out for praise were A&P in Armonk and Costco in New Rochelle, the only stores where no outdated items were found in the latest investigation. In addition, twelve other stores had fewer than 10 outdated items.

Of the 46 supermarkets and other food sellers throughout the county inspected, investigators found an average of 35 outdated items per store. That’s a 60% reduction from the 88 outdated items per stores that were found in late 2007.  However, it’s an increase over the 30 items per store that were found in June 2008.

“While results are better than they were a year ago, there was some slippage in the past six months,” said Gary Brown, director of Consumer Protection. “We’ll continue to do inspections to ensure that all stores in the county are removing outdated foods from their shelves.”

As part of the investigation, the department is seeking fines from stores that were found to be selling 10 or more items that were at least 4 days outdated.  The department is seeking $25 for each item that was 4-6 days outdated, $50 for each item that was 7-9 days outdated, $75 for each item that was 10-30 days outdated, and $150 for each item that was 31 or more days outdated.  Total fines amounted to $59,600. Stores may ask for a formal hearing to contest the fine. 

The stores with the worst results in the prior survey fared better this time.  Stop & Shop in Larchmont went from 129 outdated items to 21, Stop & Shop in North White Plains went from 123 to 53, and Stop & Shop in Peekskill went from 113 to 67. 

 The Department of Consumer Protection offered tips for consumers on how to avoid outdated items in the dairy case:

• Always check the “sell by” date on the packaging.
• Be especially careful when buying items from the top or bottom shelf of the dairy case, where inspectors found many outdated items.
• Don’t automatically reach to the back of the display case, assuming that fresher items have been placed there.  In many stores, inspectors found outdated items at the back of the display case, as stores had placed fresh items in the front and simply pushed older items to the back.

Following is a list of supermarkets that were inspected, together with the number of outdated dairy case items that were found and the proposed fine:  

    * A notice of violation, or warning, was issued to these stores.
  ** Now an A&P
*** Reinspected due to consumer complaint.