Out of date beer

[enigmatic]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but this question is about commercial beer.

I bought a six pack of Little Creatures Rogers beer from my local bottle shop approx 6 weeks ago. An off taste was noted in the first beer and as this was present in the second bottle opened, I looked at the date. This was found to be best before Jan 2007.

The beer was returned to the store and I was assured that it and the other 6 pack that that was also out of date would be removed from sale.

That was 6 weeks ago and I noticed tonight that they have 9 bottles in the fridge, all out of date with a best before of Jan 2007.

Obviously they won't listen to me, what can be done to get this beer out of the fridge?

[Kevnlis]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but this question is about commercial beer.

I bought a six pack of Little Creatures Rogers beer from my local bottle shop approx 6 weeks ago. An off taste was noted in the first beer and as this was present in the second bottle opened, I looked at the date. This was found to be best before Jan 2007.

The beer was returned to the store and I was assured that it and the other 6 pack that that was also out of date would be removed from sale.

That was 6 weeks ago and I noticed tonight that they have 9 bottles in the fridge, all out of date with a best before of Jan 2007.

Obviously they won't listen to me, what can be done to get this beer out of the fridge?

I had the same problem with BABY FOOD at a local grocery store in SA. They left it on the shelf after repeated complaints (I even called and spoke with the manager of the store after telling people in the store 3 times) for upwards of 2 years past date! This food was VERY off and people were feeding it to infants! I looked around the interenet but there was no ohmbudsman or body of gov. to look after such things from what I could find.

This is what you get for living in a small town of farmers!

[enigmatic]

That really is bad with food.

I've found this site:

http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/consumer/

and also this one:

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/

Not 100% certain if they would be interested in out of date beer. Perhaps if that shop still has the dodgy baby food you can report them?

[bolwell]

What can be done? Tell the staff that if the offending items are on display next time you enter the premises you will arrange to have their families murdered. Works for me every time.

[Kevnlis]

What can be done? Tell the staff that if the offending items are on display next time you enter the premises you will arrange to have their families murdered. Works for me every time.

I was close!

I realise most of those dates are so the companies producing the goods can cover their own asses, and most of these things are fine for ages past the dates printed, but the reason I made note of the baby food being off to the workers is that I bought it, and tried to feed it to my 6 month old daughter BEFORE I noticed that it was way past being off, and it was VERY obviously off, and no one gave a rats!

Now they are underpayed and overworked yadda yadda, but how far do we let ignorance go?

[James L]

Occasionally i buy beers from the bargain bin, and they are occasionally a few weeks out of date, but thats the whole reason why they are in the bargain bin...

I think if you tell them again, and they dont do anything, threaten to call up the food authority and get them investigated... that should straighten their act a little...

[scanman]

Threaten to not only ring the food standard authority, but consumer affairs, and today tonight/ a current affair.

That will work for sure. Bad publicity is enough to make any of those stores take the out of date stuff off the shelves.

Better still, ring the media anyway, they will send someone down to check it out and if they find out of date food, you can be sure they will send the hidden cameras down and film the offending products, before sending the reporter in to confront the manager.

[Pyssedas Heavy Industrial]

I'm always happy to write an abusive letter on your behalf if you supply me with details - my anger counsellor told me this was a good way to let off steam - even got a response from CUB about their price increases etc

[buscador]

bought an out of date Mann's Brown ale from GnG at there 20% off sale, awesome bottle shape, and tasted great too!

b

[Oliver]

enigmatic,

Perhaps one of the most effective things to do would be to contact the brewery itself.

I'm sure that LC wouldn't be happy to hear the story, and may well contact their distributor and ask them to investigate.

Plus, you might find that there's some nice fresh beer headed your way when you tell them about the rank, out-of-date beer you bought by accident

Remember that there's a difference between "best before" and "use by". It's not illegal to sell products past their "best before" date, provided they are still fit for consumption, which arguably the beer that you bought was; even though it tasted bad, consuming it wasn't going to make you sick.

Cheers,

Oliver

[Iron-Haggis]

Rule of thumb for beer and best before dates is that it is still good to sell within a month of it going past it's best before date.