A Canadian woman who bought lobster pâté at a Wal-Mart recently and felt ill after eating it said she was shocked to find the can should have been pulled from circulation more than a year ago.
It was scary. Very frightening, said Margaret Radomski, 78, of Leduc, Alta. So, then I thought, how did this get on the shelf? There is something wrong here.
Radomski said the Clover Leaf pâté smelled and tasted too fishy. A few hours after eating it, she said she felt odd.
I started to see stars in my eyes a crawling sensation on my face, she said. I got weak in my legs.
Radomski is convinced it was the pâté that made her feel sick, because she said she is normally healthy and has no allergies.
She checked the bottom of the can and found it had a best before date of July 2011 a year and a half before she bought it.
I would have never bought this can of lobster pâté if I had seen the date on it because I’m usually pretty careful about that, said Radomski.
I feel insecure now. When I go to the store, I’ve got to study more of what I am buying.
Radomski said she refused Wal-Mart’s offer of $50 compensation and decided instead to go public to warn others.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Felicia Fefer said the company’s policy is not to sell any products past their best before date..
We take this issue very seriously,” she said. We regret this incident, and remain committed to ensuring outdated products are removed from our shelves.
Go Public visited 17 major grocery stores in the Vancouver area and found one-third had outdated cans of fish and seafood on their shelves.
Old cans of tuna and shrimp, stamped best before 2010 to 2012, were found mixed in with new ones, which were stamped with best before dates as late as 2015.
When Clover Leaf is notified that product is on a store shelf that is past its best before date we will send an employee to that store to co-ordinate that product’s removal, said Peter Clarke, the company’s marketing director.
Manufacturers say canned tuna and seafood has an approximate shelf life of three years after packing, before the best before date kicks in.
After that, manufacturers say the taste, texture and nutritional value deteriorates. Unless the can is damaged, Clarke said it is still safe to eat, indefinitely.
This has nothing to do with product safety in any way. We do this because consumers do not wish to purchase product that has passed its best before date best before does not imply bad after.
The store where Go Public found the most outdated products was Safeway. Three locations were selling canned tuna and shrimp between one and three years out of date.
In Canada, there are no government rules against selling outdated canned goods. Most manufacturers stamp best before dates on cans voluntarily, however, some dates are embedded in a code that consumers can’t decipher.
Food safety experts say there is no proof eating canned fish or seafood after the best before date has passed will make anyone sick. However, they say there are no independent studies proving it won’t.
CBC 2013