ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607030017
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO MARKETPLACE
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
Did you check the expiration date before you bought that package of hamburger? Or loaf of bread? Or dozen eggs?
Most of us do - it's really one of the few ways we can feel sure we're getting fresh groceries. But here's some food for thought: There are no federal or state regulations requiring products to be dated. With just a few exceptions, those "sell by" and "use by" and "purchase by" dates stamped on everything from powdered doughnuts to liverwurst are merely recommendations that manufacturers include voluntarily.
The date on your box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, for instance, is supposed to give grocers enough time to sell the product and still maintain quality, said an operator at Kraft Foods' customer service center. And the people at Kellogg stamp their corn flakes with a use-by date that's a year from the day the cereal is manufactured, according to a company spokeswoman.
In other words, there's no government Office of Expiration Dates. In Virginia, there are two exceptions to the no-dates-required rule: Milk and infant formula must be dated, according to Mark Tubbs, program manager in the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' office of dairy and foods. But everything else - meat, bread, cheese - is exempt.
"The government can't really guarantee everything," said a spokesman for the food safety division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It would give a false sense of security."
The government can't require manufacturers to guarantee that food will be good for a certain length of time, he said, because even if the processor stores and ships a product correctly, it may go bad before the date stamped on the package if the store or the customer mishandles it.
That's exactly what the customer-service woman at Kraft said: Your mac and cheese should be good if you eat it within a month of its expiration date. But if the box wasn't stored properly, it could go stale long before then.
Grocery stores routinely mark down the prices on products nearing their expiration date to sell them quickly. But they won't sell any foods whose dates have passed, said the manager at a local Food Lion supermarket.
This doesn't, of course, mean that the government takes no interest in food quality and safety. At both state and federal levels, the government keeps close tabs on grocery stores, bakeries and food manufacturing plants. Virginia's Agriculture Department, for instance, employs 30 inspectors who spot-check everything from meat grinders to bags of rice for freshness and signs of rodents and bugs or unsanitary practices. They make one or two visits a year if there are no complaints and visit more often if problems are detected. They're committed to investigating consumer complaints, Tubbs said.
Virginia's Agriculture Department may refer complaints to the federal Food and Drug Administration. The FDA does not regulate meat and poultry, which fall under the jurisdiction of the USDA and the state Agriculture Department, or any products that have not crossed states lines, which also are regulated by the state Agriculture Department.
Additionally, most manufacturers and retailers abide by fairly strict freshness and quality guidelines, especially since television investigations several years ago alleged unsanitary food-handling practices at some supermarkets.
"It's certainly in the best interests of the business to self-impose conservative regulations," said Cecily Durrett, a spokeswoman for Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion Inc., which was the focus of much of the investigations.
Tubbs suggests using common sense when shopping.
"Even though it may be on the shelf beyond the date that's on the package, it doesn't necessarily render the product unsafe," he said. "It's up to the consumers whether they want to buy it or not."
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