US laws regarding meat labeling?

[Jenise]

Today I stopped at new grocery store that opened near us two weeks ago to buy chicken drumettes. There were four packages on the shelf. Two larger ones that had a big sticker that said "VALUE PACK--BUY MORE, SAVE $$" which were 3.49/lb, and two packages half that size with no special labeling marked $2.99/lb. Presuming a mistake, and actually wanting all four packages at $2.99 and presuming that by bringing the mistake to their attention I'd secure that, I took the packages to the two women at the specialty meat case and pointed out the discrepancy.

One quickly said, "Oh it's the packaging, larger is usually discounted." Not true, I said, showing her that the large package had the higher price.

So the other said, "Oh, then we relabeled the small packages. It's older meat, so we lowered the price to make it sell faster."

Of course, not only had the price changed, but so had the packing and sell-by dates.

I asked to speak to the meat manager.

He came out, and I explained the situation, including what girl #2 had just told me about the relabeling. He nodded in confirmation. I immediately put all four packages into his arms and said, "Then you can have your chicken back. I expect to be able to trust that all packages not indicating otherwise are fresh. At Haggens and the Food Coop, two other places I shop, they don't relabel, they simply put a discount coupon on each package of marked down meat so that customers can choose to take the risk or not. Why is your policy different?"

"It's not," he said quickly, "I just haven't trained these girls very well."

Yeah, he hasn't trained them to lie to customers.

I am fairly certain that relabeling meat as they admitted to doing is noncompliant with safe food handling laws, yet a quick search on the internet just now failed to find the law that applies. If anyone knows where to look, I'd appreciate it--I plan to write a letter.

With a quick search I found this regulation for meat and poultry handlers from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture:

Registered Meat and Poultry Handlers may not further process any meat or poultry items.
This includes opening packages and handling exposed product, relabeling product, applying
net weights, or repackaging product.

I would suspect most states have similar if not identical laws.

Apparently Tom Hayden took this on in California:

THE MEAT COUNTER
When Hayden took the meat dating issue to the California legislature, it
became clear that many consumers were surprised meat can be repackaged,
redated and sold if the original date has expired. The exception is food
packed in a USDA-approved facility, like hot dogs, that come directly to the
store already packaged. Those products can be sold after the date on the
package, but the date cannot be altered.
Because supermarkets want to keep customers happy, many do not repackage
and redate meat. The idea is to provide a steak or roast that will stay
wholesome a few days after the consumer takes it home, says Marc Kane,
Andronico's director of meat and seafood.
Andronico's puts a date four days out on meat it cuts in-house, a time
frame similar to one used by Safeway and some other markets. At Andronico's,
the meat is pulled on the third day and either sold at a reduced price or
destroyed. Ground beef is the exception. If it isn't sold within 24 hours,
it's gone. At Safeway, ground beef gets a day and a half.
At Andronico's, seafood is sold the same day it is packaged. At Safeway, it
can remain in the case for three days.
Still, Kane says he doesn't use dates when he shops. "When I buy meat, I
look at the product," he says. "I think that's how most of our customers shop -
- they look at the product, then price and then date."
Still, he said, it is tough to sell a piece of meat if the pull date is a
day or less away.

A few years ago, in Florida, my dad bought a leg of lamb to roast for Easter dinner. It had been relabeled and was worse than past sell-by date. It was spoiled and stank to high heaven when unwrapped.

If that practice isn't illegal, it ought to be.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

We had the same problem with a turkey at Christmas 2007. Luckily we had opened the package to brine the bird on Christmas Eve, so we were able to return the foul fowl & get another one.

I don't know if there are Federal laws governing this and there should be if there aren't any, and am pretty sure State laws vary greatly, ranging from ultra slack to ultra rigid, so some questions please based on the present situation.

Based on what I was able to find, all the fed laws are related to the processing side of meat handling, not retail. Retail laws are apparently state by state.

1. Would you go back to a market you found were relabeling

Yesterday, try to find the exact law, I called the meat manager at this new store's main competitor yesterday. He said that in Washington, it's not illegal to rewrap meat as long as you relabel it with the same packing and pull dates. He readily admitted, or you might even say insisted that I know, that it's in fact neccessary to rewrap most roasts daily, to get rid of juices that accumulate in the bottom of the package. At his store, however, they always maintain the original packing and pull dates. Asked about the average shelf time, he said roasts are given five days to sell. On the fourth day, at his store, they'll apply a $1-3 off coupon to the package at that point to ensure it sells. They rarely rewrap smaller cuts and never rewrap chicken. He suggesed I call the Health Department to report what happened at the other store--he also said he's hired meat cutters who have worked for that chain who have admitted to him that re-dating meat frequently occurs there.

2. Do you shop at any market you completely trust not to engage in this kind of deception

I'll never buy chicken at this store again. I might buy other meats, whose freshness is more evident, because due to their being so close and all other markets so far, it will be hard to not be their customer. However, as before they opened, I'll continue to buy as often as possible at the places I know I can trust instead.

3. Have you found any differences in this practice between a higher priced or gourmet market and lower cost or 'value' markets

How one answers that question will depend on where each of us who answers lives and shops. But in general, the "follow the money" rule works. I think it's very true here in Bellingham. The parent company of this new store that just opened, which is supposed to be an "upscale" venue along the lines of a Bristol Farms (without them having a clue of how good a Bristol Farms is or believing the good people of this town would know the difference), also own the lowest end and dirtiest stores in town. It's certainly naked-eye apparent that they don't have the across-the-board organizational attitude towards minimal acceptable quality of their main competitor, Haggens, and that applies to not just variety and freshness of meat, cheese and produce but infrastructure stuff like type of/condition of refer units and ventilation of instore cooking areas.

I hope you do turn them in. I'm fed up with crooks.