Exposing the trick of erasing expiration dates to sell poor quality products

Currently, the situation of expired goods circulating in the market is quite common . Notably, some subjects also use the trick of erasing the product's expiration date to mix and sell to consumers. This fraudulent business behavior needs to be strongly condemned to protect the rights and health of consumers.

After the 2024 Lunar New Year, the Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team chaired by the Department of Industry and Trade inspected many grocery stores in localities and discovered many expired products still being sold on shelves.

Many reasons were given by traders to justify their violations such as not paying attention, being in a hurry , busy, no time to check, return expired goods to distributor.

Notably, the trick of erasing expiration dates is a fraudulent business practice that was discovered by the Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team at establishments in Binh Xuyen district .

Specifically, on March 20, at Tue Que grocery store, Phu Xuan commune (Binh Xuyen) , the Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team discovered many packages of butter -roasted almonds with signs of having their expiration dates erased. The traces of this were quite obvious because part of the packaging was eroded and rough, eating deep into the cellophane layer below.

The expiration dates of many packages of roasted butter almonds at Tue Que grocery store were found to be bleached.

Grocery store owner Tran Thi Tue said that the butter- roasted almonds were taken before Lunar New Year 2024. Because they took a lot of goods at the same time, the family could not control everything.

In addition to the batch of roasted butter almonds with expired expiration dates, at Tue Que store there are many other expired products such as peas , candy, Milo powdered milk, milk and many other near -expiry products.

Also at another convenience store in Binh Xuyen district, the Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team discovered a batch of shrimp chips with the brand name "Nguyen Hau" with the expiration date also bleached.

If at Tue Que grocery store, the subject erased the production date and month on the packaging, at this store, only the number 3 (the last number represents the year of production and expiration date) was erased.

Products that have not yet been "magically" revealed an expiration date of November 2, 2023.

When asked, these store owners all blamed the distributor for delivering expired products; neglecting to check and not promptly recalling and exchanging/returning products that do not meet quality standards.

According to the feedback of retailers, currently, distributors have marketing staff to deliver products to each retail store. This marketing department is responsible for collecting expired products. Most expired goods are collected by distributors and returned to agents.

This makes small traders subjective, not checking and verifying the expiry date of the product. Regardless of the justification, according to regulations, the business owner is the one who is ultimately responsible and must accept the forms of handling according to the level of violation.

Through the inspection process, it is shown that the handling of administrative violations by competent authorities regarding expired goods in localities is still limited. Very few cases of small traders and business owners being handled for this violation lead to the situation of expired goods still floating on the market.

On the other hand, consumers do not have the habit of checking the expiration date regularly when shopping, and when they discover they have bought an expired product, they do not actively report it .

Using expired products and goods directly affects the health of consumers. Therefore, according to regulations, the business and trade of expired goods are strictly handled.

Depending on the value of the infringing goods, the administrative penalty is prescribed differently, from 300,000 - 500,000 VND for goods with value of less than 1 million VND ; 40 - 50 million VND for goods worth 100 million VND or more.

In addition, individuals and organizations that violate the law will also be subject to remedial measures such as being forced to destroy the violated exhibits and return any illegal profits gained from the violation.

From the cases discovered by the Food Safety Interdisciplinary Inspection Team, the agencies and functional units in Binh Xuyen district need to strengthen the inspection and review of grocery and convenience stores in the area to detect and strictly handle violations. Thereby contributing to correcting and gradually ending violations to bring business activities into order , ensuring the rights of consumers.

Article and photos: Ha Tran

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