Dear PoP – Fraudulent Corner Market

Photo by PoPville flickr user Dave Kleinschmidt

“Dear PoP,

So there is a market on my block. I have stopped in there a number of times to buy food…and noticed that they are putting their OWN expiration dates over the manufacturer’s expiration dates. I wouldn’t mind this…but they are CHANGING the expiration dates on their meat products.

I caught this once…some Purdue chicken…I peeled back their sticker and found a manufacturers date that indicated expiration was 5 days sooner.

Anyways, I’ve gone back twice since to try and catch them, and both times found that they had scrubbed off the manufacturers expiration date before applying their own sticker.

I’m concerned for a lot of reasons…Is what they are doing illegal? Most disturbing is the fact that I reported this yesterday to the Department of Consumer and regulatory affairs food safety office…and no one has returned my message yet (It’s been over 24 hours).”

I would think that this is most definitely illegal. I mean that’s the whole reason these dates are placed in the first place, right? For safety? I’d say the most disturbing part is the practice itself rather than not hearing back from DCRA in 24 hours. Having said that, a DC government agency most definitely needs to look into this. I will put you in touch with someone from DCRA immediately.

This has to be illegal right?