Major grocery chain apologizes after shopper buys 'mislabelled' chicken past its best-before date at Toronto store

A major grocery chain is apologizing after a Toronto shopper purchased “mislabeled” chicken that was already past its best-before-date. (danke-you/Reddit)

A major grocery chain is apologizing after a Toronto shopper purchased “mislabelled” chicken that was already past its best-before-date.

In a now-viral thread, with over 1,400 upvotes and nearly 300 comments, a Reddit user shared a picture of the bacon-wrapped chicken medallion they say they purchased from Metro on Sept. 29.

One package was partially unwrapped, revealing the sticker on the outer plastic layer of the packaging had a best-before date of Oct. 9, 2023, while the inner layer displayed a date of Sept. 30. The user said they opened the chicken on Oct. 2, thinking that it was still safe to consume.

“Tried cooking it but it was definitely off, so into the bin,” the user wrote, adding in a follow-up comment that they filed a complaint with Metro and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

A spokesperson for the grocery chain confirmed to CTV News Toronto in a statement that what transpired was ultimately a “mislabelling error” and that Metro “regrets the inconvenience it caused our customer.”

The grocery chain also confirmed that an investigation into how this may have happened is ongoing.

“This store has been in contact with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, who determined the incident was a mistake due to handler error, and our food safety team is investigating further to work with store staff to reinforce labelling and food safety requirements,” Stephanie Bonk of Metro wrote.

“We did not find any additional mislabelled products. As a precaution, the store did remove the product from this distributor to ensure nothing was missed.”

While the CFIA could not directly comment on the ongoing investigation, the agency confirmed it did receive a complaint and inspection staff are currently looking into it.

“In response to a food complaint, the CFIA takes steps to determine the nature and extent of the complaint, whether a potential health risk or contravention of legislation exists, or if the complain is valid,” the CFIA wrote.

While in this case the presumably spoiled chicken was not eaten, at least one expert said that there could be consequences that arise from this type of mislabeling error.

“There’s a few things that could happen. Obviously, you cook chicken, hopefully, so traditional pathogens like salmonella, E.coli, would be killed off,” University of Guelph food safety professor, Keith Warriner, told CTV News Toronto, adding there is a possibility staphylococcus aureus – which produces a toxin – could form if the chicken has been “temperature abused.”

“A danger of eating spoiled meat is called biogenic amines,” Warriner added.

“Things like histamine is one of them … that gets you an allergic reaction and people are concerned about them because (they) do cause cancer and things like this.”

Someone could also experience an upset stomach, according to Warriner.

In Canada, the CFIA said it is illegal for food manufacturers, producers or retailers to change the best before date if it results in unsafe food or misleading information on the label.

“I think the thing to notice is that there is no expiry dates on meat,” Warriner said. “In Canada, we have best-before dates. There’s no real definition. The only definition I’ve got is that if you’ve got a product that’s got less than 90 days shelf life, you have to put (a) best before date time.”

Best-before dates are used for products with a shelf life of 90 days, which the CFIA says online indicates the freshness, taste and nutritional value of the item.

Meanwhile, expiry dates are used for “certain foods that have strict compositional and nutritional specifications which might not be met after the expiration dates,” according to the CFIA. These can include items like nutritional supplements or infant formula.

“All food sold in Canada must comply with Canadian legislation. When non-complaint products are identified, CFIA takes appropriate enforcement action,” the CFIA said in its statement, adding enforcement actions are commensurate with the food safety risk and the seriousness of the non-compliance.

“These actions can range from verbal and/or notifications to warning, detention of product, product recall and/or prosecution.”

DO WE NEED BEST BEFORE DATES?

Earlier this summer, the House of Commons agricultural committee recommended the federal government work with the provinces and territories to investigate the impacts of tossing out best before-dates.

It is one of over a dozen recommendations in the committee’s report, which was published during a time amid heightened political attention on the rising cost of groceries.

CEO of Second Harvest Canada, Lori Nikkel, told the committee in March that best-before dates are “wildly misunderstood.”

“While Canadians struggle to put food on the table, they are also convinced that best-before dates are about safety and will throw away perfectly good food to protect themselves and their families,” Nikkel said. “Eliminating best-before dates would prevent safe, consumable food from being thrown out and save Canadians money on their grocery bills.”

Warriner says the problem with best-before dates is that they’re “very arbitrary.”

“So with best-before dates, the problem we have with them is all to do with accuracy,” Warriner said.

“The trouble is we don’t know what the history of the product is. If a meat product, for example, say hygienically-processed, maintained at low temperature, it can last much longer than five days whereas other products if it’s been temperature abused, maybe left in the aisle or left out, things like this, obviously it spoils quicker.”

CTV News Toronto reached out to the Reddit user for comment but did not hear a response.

With files from CTVNews.ca’s Spencer Van Dyk