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Date Posted: 01:09:49 05/23/02 Thu
Author: Anonymous
Subject: Scumbag butchers repackage rotten meat

http://www.msnbc.com/news/753195.asp?pne=msn

Is the meat, poultry and fish
you buy as fresh as you think?

A ‘Dateline’ investigation finds some of the nation’s largest grocery chains extended sell-by dates

NBC News

May 21 — It’s something most Americans take for granted — that the food in our local supermarket is safe. But we recently heard something that made us question that so we went to investigate and we took our hidden cameras with us. What we found may leave you wondering whether the meat, poultry and fish you buy is as fresh as you think. Are some of America’s biggest supermarket chains being less than honest about the freshness of the food you buy? Correspondent John Larson reports.


AMERICA’S GROCERY stores are among the most abundant food markets in the world.
Meatworker: “We cut fresh meat here everyday.”
Meatworker: “Every day fresh.”
We rely on stores to tell us how fresh their meat poultry and fish are, trusting those tiny dates, computer programmed and carefully stamped on every package: the sell-by dates.
Correspondent John Larson: “What do they think the date means?”
Woman Consumer: “It’s supposed to mean sell by, it’s only fresh till.”
Consumer #2: “They have to sell it by that day.”
Consumer #3: “That’s right and if it’s not out of the store then it should definitely be tossed or something.”
Well actually, according to the USDA, we can rely on those dates to tell us when to freeze meat or throw it away — three to five days after the date runs out for beef and pork, one or two days for chicken.
Meatworker: “You could get somebody sick. The date’s wrong and the meat might be going bad.”
So, you think you know how fresh the meat is, but do you? What if what appears to be a promise is really a lie?
John Larson: “Everybody behind the counter knows this?”
Store employee: “Pretty much. I don’t know of anyone who don’t know it.”
Dateline investigated stores owned by seven of the largest grocery chains in the nation, which operate more than 7,000 stores in nearly every state to find out whether grocery stores are telling the truth about the meat they sell.

What began as a tip, turned into a five-month “Dateline” hidden-camera investigation into a practice with little or no regulation.
We investigated stores owned by seven of the largest grocery chains in the nation, which operate more than 7,000 stores in nearly every state to find out whether grocery stores are telling the truth about the meat they sell.
Our investigation began with Jim Morrison, a former bonds salesman who tried to blow the whistle on what he called a massive consumer fraud.
Jim Morrison: “I just don’t like big companies that rip off the little guy. I’ve just got a problem with that.”
The rip-off, he says, had to do with those tiny numbers — the sell-by dates.
Most meat and fish come into stores in bulk, where employees cut and package it and, because the clock is always ticking, they say they generally give it around three days to sell before throwing it away. But Morrison says during trips to grocery stores near Jupiter, Florida, seven years ago, he realized the stores were secretly changing the sell-by dates on packages of meat to lengthen their shelf life.
His discovery became a crusade — some might say an obsession. For two years he videotaped and documented evidence, investigating several chains, but focusing especially on stores owned by Winn Dixie, which operates more than 1,000 stores in 14 Southern states.
Jim Morrison: “Every store that I visited had this scam going on.”
Morrison quickly became a thorn in Winn Dixie’s side, even demanding the company hire him to inspect their stores. But not only did Winn Dixie deny Morrison’s allegations, the company accused him of extortion and fabricating the evidence.
John Larson: “So now they’re saying, ‘He hasn’t detected a problem, he is the problem?’”
Jim Morrison: “They said that I was smuggling tampered and spoiled products and placed them on the shelves of these companies.”
John Larson: “Had you?”
Jim Morrison: “Not once.”
But in December of 1997, Winn Dixie helped convince the government that Morrison was concocting a “scheme... to defraud” Winn Dixie. The FBI raided his home, taking his notes and tapes.
Jim Morrison: “There never should have been one FBI agent anywhere near my house. Period.”
No charges were ever filed against Morrison and the FBI closed the case. But it all made us wonder, what about the things he had claimed? Evidence of a scam — selling out-of-date meat to the public. Was it happening at Winn Dixie or at any other stores? We decided to set out on our own, to go undercover to find out for ourselves.
We came up with a way to secretly mark the packages of meat: a small metal bar with tiny numbers. We wore the bar like a splint on our finger, and marked the bottom of the trays by imprinting, pressing numbers into the styrofoam.

First, we needed a way to track large amounts of meat out for sale and it had to be fool-proof. We came up with a way to secretly mark the packages of meat: a small metal bar with these tiny numbers.
We wore the bar like a splint on our finger, and marked the bottom of the trays by imprinting, pressing numbers into the styrofoam, without breaking the plastic wrap.
For example, if a steak has a sell-by date of May 7th, we’d impress a small zero/seven on the tray. If anyone changed the date on the label but kept the original tray, we’d know it.
And then, we would shop just like you do, except sometimes to explain why we were spending so much time in the meat department we’d suggest we were thinking of starting a catering business and we’d ask questions.
Dateline: “So do you ever change the date like once it’s on there?”
Store worker: “No. We can’t. That’s... oh, no. We got cameras watching us. And this computer runs straight up to the main office. If you do something like that, you could get fired.”
Cameras watching him? What he didn’t know was that Dateline’s hidden cameras were rolling too as we investigated stores across the country to see who was telling the truth.
Dateline: “Do you change the date?”
Store worker: “Oh, no, no, no, never change the date.”

’DATELINE’ INVESTIGATION
We went undercover, checking Winn Dixie stores in Dallas and Atlanta. We looked like any other shopper, but we were busy leaving our small imprints behind — marks we would check later. As our hidden cameras rolled in Atlanta, a Winn Dixie employee who worked behind the meat counter told us they never, never change the sell-by date.
Dateline: “Do you ever change the date or does the date always stay the same?”
Store employee: “No. The date stays the same.”
After a few days of marking packages in Atlanta, we came back to check for our marks and found this. A steak dated Feb. 3. But when we turned it over — there was our imprint — our January 30 mark still visible. Someone had added four more days and put it back out for sale.

Sell-by dates are not required by law; they’re more a good-faith promise of freshness. And Winn Dixie has a strict policy on sell-by dates: it “will not tolerate the intentional selling of merchandise after the original sell-by-date.” So, is the store always living up to its promise? After a few days of marking packages in Atlanta, we came back to check for our marks and found this. A steak dated Feb. 3. But when we turned it over — there was our imprint — our January 30 mark still visible. Someone had added four more days and put it back out for sale. In Dallas, we found more of the same. Look at this steak — here’s our mark showing it was dated the 11th. Its new sell-by date? Someone added four more days — giving it until the 15th. And without our marks, we would never have known that what employees were telling us was not true. For example, we knew these ribs went out of date on the 6th, yesterday.
Store employee: “I marked them down because they’re gonna go out of date tomorrow.”
Dateline: “Oh tomorrow they go out of date.”
Store employee: “Yeah, the 8th.”
Just to make sure someone wasn’t just reusing styrofoam trays, we also compared our pictures of meat. Even though they had new labels, we could double check, and see that the fat — the marbling matched. But just how dangerous is meat that is not fresh? Can it make you sick? Well, it turns out that one simple question is both up for debate and a touchy subject. “The dates do not have anything to do with safety,” says Jill Hollingsworth, a spokesperson for the Food Marketing Institute, a trade association for grocery stores. She says meat, poultry and fish are safe, regardless of their sell-by dates, as long as they are cooked properly.


Preparing meat and fish safely

The federal government says the best way to protect your family is to cook meat to an internal temperature of at least:
• Fresh Beef, Lamb, Veal: Medium 160 degrees F
• Fresh Pork: Medium 160 degrees F
• Poultry breasts, roast: 170 degrees F
• Chicken, whole: 180 degrees F
• Seafood, Fin Fish: Cook until opaque and flakes easily with a fork.

“Cooking products thoroughly to the required temperatures will destroy all the harmful bacteria that could make a person sick,” Hollingsworth says. But Ron Schnitzer disagrees. “They’re playing Russian roulette,” says Schnitzer, a microbiologist who some grocery stores themselves rely on to test their food. He says although expired sell-by dates do not mean the meat is bad, bacteria is growing, sometimes harmful bacteria, like salmonella, listeria, and staphaureus and that is a risky game.
“Cooking will definitely remove the harmful bacteria, the pathogens, if they’re there in low numbers,” Schnitzer says. “If they are in high numbers, what guarantee do we have that we’re actually going to get rid of them?”
“Cooking will kill the harmful bacteria that will cause the illness,” Jill Hollingsworth counters.
John Larson: “Can you guarantee it?”
Jill Hollingsworth: “The cooking temperatures that are...”
Larson: “Can you guarantee it?”
Jill Hollingsworth: “The cooking temperatures that are recommended for consumers are tested and designed and recommended by the federal government because they were specifically established as the temperatures that kill all of the harmful bacteria.”
Larson: “Is that a yes?”
Jill Hollingsworth: “Cooking kills bacteria.” But scientists tell us some bacteria give off toxins that are resistant to cooking, poisons that can make you sick.
‘Cooking products thoroughly to the required temperatures will destroy all the harmful bacteria that could make a person sick.’
— DR. JILL HOLLINGSWORTH
Food Marketing Institute Although no one knows how many illnesses are attributable to meat, the Centers for Disease Control estimates 5,000 Americans die every year from food poisoning from all food sources, and 76 million of us get sick. But because it can take days for a food-borne illness show up, tracking it back to its source is almost impossible. “How do you remember what you ate 48 hours ago? Or even worse, 72 hours ago,” says Schnitzer. So we asked the microbiologist to run a test for us. We had seen something odd about some hams at a Winn Dixie store in Dallas. All the Winn Dixie labels were placed in exactly the same way. The sell-by date was in March, but we checked underneath. The original sell-by date was January 31st. Someone had added 38 days.
So we bought one, packed it in dry ice, rushed it overnight to Schnitzer’s laboratory and asked him to measure the amount of bacteria on it. “When you get above three million, you’ve got a lot of bacteria,” Schnitzer says. And the level for our ham? “Nineteen million,” Schnitzer says. That’s six times the level at which meat is spoiling and risk increasing, according to Schnitzer. Not exactly the ham we were promised back in the store.
Dateline: “Are they fresh?”
Store employee: “Yeah, they just, we just had an abundance of them and with the low salt, not a lot of people like the low salt. Actually it’s a good ham.”
John Larson: “So even though it’s got too much bacteria, if you go home and cook that ham, are you going to get sick?”
Ron Schnitzer: “For the bulk of the population, no. There’s probably very little likelihood you’re going to get ill. But are you going to feed this to a young individual? Are you going to feed this to an immuno-compromised individual? They could become ill.”

What do sell-by dates mean?


• Sell-by dates are supposed to tell supermarkets when to pull meat off their shelves. But they are also guides for consumers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that you cook or freeze chicken no more than two days after its sell-by date. It recommends that you cook or freeze beef, veal, pork and lamb no more than five days after their sell-by dates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that you cook or freeze fish no more than two days after its sell-by date. Click here to view the USDA's recommendations under the STORAGE section.
• FDA's recommendations for fish.: 1 to 2 days. Click here to view the "How long will it keep?" section.








And we did more testing. At another store in Dallas, we tracked this fish out for sale for six days. Its bacterial count? 230 million.
John Larson: “Under any circumstances, should anybody be eating that fish?”
Ron Schnitzer: “There is no circumstance that you can cook out 230 million bacteria. I’m not willing to take the risk that one pathogen isn’t going to survive.”
‘There is no circumstance that you can cook out 230 million bacteria. I’m not willing to take the risk that one pathogen isn’t going to survive.’
— RON SCHNITZER
Microbiologist Altogether at Winn Dixie — not including the fish — this is what we found: 27 examples of re-dated meat in six out of the seven stores we checked.
So were some employees breaking company rules, risking their jobs? If so, why? This man thinks he knows. In 1997, Robert Becker was only 22-years-old when he was hired as a meatcutter for Winn Dixie. “I moved to Tallahassee and that’s the first job I applied for,” he says. In the six months he worked there, Becker says workers in his department routinely added days to expiring packages of meat by changing the sell-by dates.
John Larson: “If it’s not about selling it by this date, then what’s it about?”
Robert Becker: “It’s about making money.”
Becker says the order to change sell-by dates came from the manager of his department — who Becker says told him he got bonuses based on how profitable the meat department was.
“He would come in and say, ‘We’re not doing something right, because my bonuses are crap. And we need to make changes in here,’” Becker said. “And his changes were to sell everything possible.” Becker says he even saw his boss rooting through the bone barrel — the garbage pail for the meat department — looking for pieces he could grind into hamburger. “He would take it out, trim it off, weigh it and say, ‘This is what you’re throwing away. Money,’” Becker says. And “Dateline” learned that Robert Becker wasn’t alone. In Alabama, another former Winn Dixie meatcutter who asked not to be identified, told us that while he was taught the right way to handle meat in Winn Dixie’s training school, the tune quickly changed when he reported to work.
John Larson: “Who’s teaching you to re-wrap, re-date, essentially fool the public?”
Meatcutter: “Everybody learns new coming in. So somebody essentially is going to teach you, be that a marget manager or another experienced meatcutter.”
John Larson: “Was this just one store where you noticed this —”
Meatcutter: “No. I worked in four stores for this chain.”
John Larson: “So all four market managers were essentially asking you to rewrap, re-date and change the date?”
Meatcutter: “Sure. There’s nothing different from market to market.” Perhaps more disturbing, he told us Dateline was likely missing most of the rewrapped, out-of-date meat, because the meat usually comes back for sale — not in the same tray so we could track it — but in different trays, in different forms.
Meatcutter: “I can take a roast and cut it into steaks, make more money. And you’d never know.”
And when aging chicken started to smell bad? He says they’d just take the skins off, and charge more.
Meatcutter: “We take’em to the back, skin ‘em, then pace ‘em in a tray. And sure, you’re gonna get more per pound for ‘em.”
Grocery stores operate on razor-thin profit margins — last year Winn Dixie reported making less than one half of one percent profit. And there’s added pressure in meat and fish departments where products are perishable and timing is everything, where a pound of meat thrown away comes straight off the bottom line.
John Larson: “Did you ever tell the public, ‘Listen, this is what we’re doing here. We’re actually re-wrapping, re-dating?”
Robert Becker: “No.”
John Larson: “I mean it’s almost like the industry’s dirty little secret.”
Becker: “Yup.”

CHECKING OTHER STORES
We expanded our investigation to include six more of the biggest, most recognizable names in the grocery business — Kroger, Publix, A & P, Safeway, Albertsons, and Pathmark — which together run thousands of stores in nearly every state.

Is it the industry’s dirty little secret? Do other supermarket chains do the same thing? We expanded our investigation to include six more of the biggest, most recognizable names in the grocery business — Kroger, Publix, A&P, Safeway, Albertsons and Pathmark — which together run thousands of stores in nearly every state. We would investigate a number of stores owned by each company, and spend about a week in each store. How would they do?
First stop was Albertsons with 1,700 stores in cities like Los Angeles, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City. We chose six stores in Dallas and Denver, including an upscale Denver store, complete with its own dry cleaning, Starbucks, and pet care center.
Just like we had at Winn Dixie, we imprinted the bottom of trays, tracking about 30 packages a day per store. And like Winn Dixie, Albertsons has a strict policy — that “prohibit(s) the extension or alteration of any sell by dates.”
But it wasn’t long before re-wraps of meat with expired sell-by dates began showing up at Albertson’s, too.
The date on these pork chops is March 16. But look on the side: we found our imprint showing they used to be dated the 13th.
We found 16 packages of re-dated meat in this store alone.
The manager of the meat department was friendly.
Dateline: “We just have a question about dates.”
But we wondered, was he completely unaware of what was going on in his own department, or was he telling us something that wasn’t true?
Dateline: “So then do you ever change the dates?”
Store Worker: “No, it’s against company policy. I’d get fired.”
At another Denver Albertsons we found an unusually clever way to secretly change dates.
“There are two labels.”
New labels dated the 17th, covering up old dates that said the 15th, placed so carefully we almost missed them.
Dateline: “Do you ever change the date?”
Store worker: “Oh, no, no, no, never change the date.”
At another Denver Albertsons, this manager told us he had heard about re-dating, but he’d never do it.
Store worker: “I know 16 guys who have been fired for doing that.”
Dateline: “Why would they do that?”
Store worker: “Why would they do that? Because we have gross profit numbers that we have to get out of there and everyone gets all paranoid. That’s a three dollar package and I mean I’m not going to lose my job for three dollars.”
Yet in his department alone, we found seven re-dated packages.
Store worker: “Never mess with dates.”
Sell-by dates are not required by law; they’re more a good-faith promise of freshness.

In Dallas, we found more of the same: expiring sell by dates, with new dates added.
Re-dated lamb and re-dated chicken, both given two more days to sell. Re-dated beef given three extra days. Re-dated pork given four.
And remember the former meat worker warning us that most re-dating would be impossible to track because it included replacing the old trays? Look at this: at one Dallas Albertsons, we imprinted a beef skirt steak in a yellow tray.
When we came back the next day, we couldn’t find it. But we did find a beef skirt in a black tray that was exactly the same weight and price of the steak in the yellow tray. And this steak was dated five days later.
Was it the same meat? We cued up our pictures — before and after. They matched. It was the same steak.
So in all, what did we find at Albertsons?
We found re-wrapping and re-dating at all six stores we checked — a total of 48 packages.
Next we tried Publix which owns nearly 700 stores in cities like Miami, Orlando and Tampa. We visited eight stores in Atlanta and Columbia, South Carolina. In four of the stores, we found no re-dating at all.
Among the other four, we found only eight re-dated products like this Cajun catfish given three more days to sell. Compared to Winn Dixie and Albertsons — much less re-dating at Publix.
Next up, Safeway which owns 1,600 stores in cities like Seattle and Washington, D.C. Safeway’s policy on changing the sell-by date specifically “prohibits employees from changing the package date.”
A Safeway meat manager in Denver:
Dateline: “Do you ever change the date once it’s on there?”
Meat worker: “No. We can’t. Oh, no, no. We got cameras watching us. And this computer runs right up the main office. If you do something like that, you’d get fired.”
But in one week, we found 15 packages of re-dated meat in this manager’s department, almost always extending the sell-by date by four days.
At another Denver Safeway we had just been there a few days, marking packages when the store manager stopped us and asked if we were taking pictures of the meat.
Store employee: “Who are you with? What are you doing this for?”
Dateline: “Actually we’re with NBC News.”
We told him we were doing a story about re-dating meat.
Meat worker: “This isn’t re-dated.”
You would think a store manager would want to know if someone in his meat department was selling meat past the sell-by date. But all he wanted from us was our cameras and videotape.

You would think a store manager would want to know if someone in his meat department was selling meat past the sell-by date. But all he wanted from us was our cameras and videotape.
Manager: “I need your camera and your film.”
Dateline: “You can’t take our property.”
Dateline: “No, you can’t do that.”
Manager: “Well you can get out of the store then.”
Dateline: “OK. Be happy to.”
Manager: “You buying this?”
Dateline: “Yes.”
Meat worker: “Oh, no you’re not.” (grabs cart)
Dateline: “Oh yes, we are, ma’am.”
Meat worker: “Oh no you’re not.”
Dateline: “You’re not going to sell us your food?”
Meat worker: “No, not with you guys doing undercover work.”
But we still had our videotapes, which later showed someone had re-wrapped and added days to at least four pieces of meat. These country style ribs started off dated the 15th, but here they are re-dated the 16th.
All together, this is what we found at Safeway: 21 rewrapped, re-dated packages in all three Safeways we checked.
On to three more chains:
Kroger — the largest chain in the country with 2,400 stores in cities like Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati.
A&P with 800 stores in cities like New Orleans, Hartford and the suburbs of New Jersey.
And Pathmark with 138 stores in cities like Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware.
Their policies seem clear: Kroger “strictly prohibits the redating of any products, including fresh meat and seafood”.
A&P? Well, here’s an A&P meat manager in Maplewood, New Jersey:
Dateline: “So you’re not allowed to rewrap or anything?”
Store employee: “No, we have to take it out.”
And the same for Pathmark, at least according to these Pathmark meat managers.
Dateline: “But do you change the date?”
Store employee: “No, we leave the date on it.”
Dateline: “Can they change the date?”
Store employee: “No. They have to put the same date on it.”
And yet we found rewrapped meat with days added in every single Kroger, A&P and Pathmark store that we checked.
At Kroger in Columbia, South Carolina, we found re-dated crab cakes. A Kroger date placed right over the packer’s date. In all: 26 packages of re-dated pork, seafood, and beef at three out of three Kroger stores we checked.
At A&P in New Jersey we found five packages of veal. Our mark showed they were first dated February 26. The new date: March 5th — they’d all been given an extra seven days to sell. All added up at A&P — 33 re-dated pieces of beef, pork, and chicken in three out of three A&P stores that we checked.
We found rewrapped meat with days added in every single Kroger, A&P and Pathmark store that we checked.

At Pathmark, also in New Jersey, we found this top-of-the-line, all-natural steak for almost $10 a pound, re-dated for two more days. In all, we found 38 re-dated packages of beef, pork and fish in three out of three Pathmark stores we checked.
But there was something different we found at Pathmark — a meat worker who unlike anyone else we talked to, appeared to tell us the truth.
Dateline: “Do they put the same date on it?”
Meat worker: “No, they put another date.”
Dateline: “Oh so they re-wrap it and put another date?”
Meat worker: “Yeah.”
Dateline: “But how would you know?”
Meat worker: “That’s what I’m saying. Sometimes... they could fool anybody.”
Then we told him how others in his department said they don’t re-date.
Dateline: “We spoke with someone and he was like, oh, we don’t change dates and stuff. Why would he say that?”
Meat worker: “That’s what they said. I work back there, you know what I’m saying? Just take my word.”

So our grand total? All together, we spent 46 days inside stores at seven grocery store chains, 33 different stores, where we found re-dating in 28 — 201 packages in all with sell-by dates on fresh meat and fish extended from one to seven days. It was time to ask the meat managers — the men who promised us it never, never happens in their stores — to explain.
John Larson: “Seventeen pieces of meat in your department are rewrapped and dates added to the expiration date. How is that?”
Store employee: (shrugs and turns away)
We had investigated seven of the largest supermarket chains. We’d been told over and over by meat managers that they’d never re-date meat.
Dateline: “Do you ever re-wrap stuff?”
Store manager: “Rewrap stuff? We’re not allowed to do it.”
So why had we found 200 re-dated packages:
new labels hiding old labels?
or new sell-by dates when the old ones expired?

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