Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Repackaging Meat

The Swedish grocery store chain, ICA, is considered one of the most trusted retail brands in Sweden. It celebrated its 90 year anniversary this year.1

According to Wikipedia, a documentary aired on Swedish television last week that showed ICA employees:
"... relabeling out-of-date ground meat, as well as grinding down other forms of meat past their 'best before' date to make ground meat (mince)."

"... picking up out-of-date pork chops from the floor, repacking and relabeling them."

Hans Hallén, a former quality control manager for ICA, claimed that:

"Sausage meats that had become old and sticky were also repackaged after rinsing."
This makes me wonder if anything like this ever happens here. A few years ago I was in a grocery store and noticed a block of imported cheese with two 'best by' date stickers, a later dated one over an older dated one. Maybe just an accident?
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1 ICA Group's Annual Report 2006 (pdf)
Thank you, Sans!

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