An inspector checks dairy products at a Dia warehouse on Yinxing Road on May 11, 2011. [Shanghai Daily]
Staff members of French retail giant Carrefour were found replacing production dates on meat with new ones without changing the product at its outlet in Zhangjiang, Pudong New Area.
A Shanghai TV Station reporter shot a video of a shop assistant changing the labels on May 6. The shop assistant took frozen beef and mutton out of a refrigerator, tore off the original package and replaced it with a new one. The production time on the old label said 10am, May 6. The new one said 8:30pm, May 6.
The reporter said the company illegally prolonged the quality guarantee period by about 10 hours.
The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau's Pudong New Area branch said it is looking into the case.
Meanwhile, Dia, a Spain-based franchised supermarket, was found selling expired dairy products during spot checks by lawmakers yesterday morning.
The city's quality watchdog is conducting an investigation at the supermarket's logistics base and outlets around the city before deciding how to penalize the supermarket affiliated to the Carrefour Group.
Five types of expired products were found in the Dia store on Chongqing Road N., Huangpu District, including two milk drinks and three bottles of lactic acid drink. The drinks should have been removed from shelves several days ago, the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau said.
The bureau inspected Dia's other stores in the city, but didn't find any other problems.
"According to the country's law, the company will be fined five to 10 times the sales value of expired products," said Wang Wenzhen, director of the bureau's Nanjing Road E. office.
The bureau said it will destroy the expired products.
Dia said the incident was caused by careless management. "Our company's rule states that dairy product shelves should be checked every two or three days to ensure expired products are moved," said Xu Lianlian, sales manager of Dia Shanghai. "The employee responsible for those shelves must be very careless."
Dia said it will provide compensation of 10 times the value of a product if a customer buys expired food in its store.
This is the second time Dia was ensnared in a food scandal in the past month.
Earlier, Shanghai Shenglu Food Co Ltd companies recycled expired steamed buns into new ones by adding illegal chemical substances.
They sold the buns to 10 supermarkets in the city, including a Dia outlet.
