Target 11 investigates food purchased with old expiration dates

PITTSBURGH — What would you do if you got home and realized the food you'd just bought was expired? A Channel 11 viewer called Target 11 for help. She'd purchased bottles of mayonnaise and mustard with "use by" dates from two years ago. Target 11 Consumer Investigator Robin Taylor did some digging to find out if that was even legal.

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Agriculture oversees food sales. The only things they regulate are milk and baby formula. They can't be sold past the "sell by" date, but for everything else, that date you see on labels is just a recommendation.

"I said, 'Oh let me check this.' I saw the 10, and I said 'This can't be right,' " said Blanche Wilkerson as she showed me several bottles of mayonnaise and mustard.

It was hard to read, but the "use by" date was 4/28/2010. That's two years ago, which Wilkerson found upsetting. She had just bought them at a dollar store in Uniontown.

"I just think it's wrong. I don't even think they should sell this to the public. They should toss it in the trash, and you know, take a loss," said Wilkerson.

She would have asked for her money back, but at the It's A Buck store the receipt says, "No Returns, No Refunds, No Exchanges."

So for Wilkerson, it was a lesson learned to check the dates more carefully.

When I went into the store, I found canned and packaged foods that were well past their "use by" dates, but there's nothing illegal about that.

In fact, Nicole Bucher, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture said, "There are numerous stores throughout the state that sell expired food at discount prices, and many bargain-seekers shop this way."

"Use by" dates are a recommendation by manufacturers.

The manager of the It's A Buck store said it gets some complaints, but not many. The owner said he will allow Wilkerson to return the bottled food.

"We have signs that say, 'Tastes great, out-of-date. Some foods are out-of-date. If not satisfied you can return them,'" said John Lunt, the owner of four It's A Buck stores, including two that are closing because of the economy.

Wilkerson said she even called Heinz to see if the mayonnaise was safe to eat.

"And she told me it's not going to hurt me to use it. And I thought to myself, 'If that's the case, I'll send it to your house, and you can use it,' " said Wilkerson.

I talked to a dietitian about the safety of eating expired food. Leslie Bonci, of UPMC, said she wouldn't eat the mayonnaise because it has egg in it, and that makes it just too risky, although the mustard is probably fine.

For most canned foods, it's a freshness and taste issue, not a safety one.

Here's Bonci's recommendation: things that are a month or two past the date are probably OK, but she wouldn't trust things that are years past the "use by" date.

WPXI