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Wednesday 10 December 2008
2-Year-Old Soda, Anyone?
A Tokyo supermarket has continued to sell expired food and beverages at bargain prices at its specially established Mottainai Shohin (products too precious to waste) corner.
A Tokyo supermarket has continued to sell expired food and beverages at bargain prices at its specially established Mottainai Shohin (products too precious to waste) corner.
A Tokyo supermarket has continued to sell expired food and beverages at bargain prices at its specially established Mottainai Shohin (products too precious to waste) corner even after a local health center instructed the store manager to stop the practice, it has been learned.
The products on sale at Sankei Super in Koto Ward, Tokyo, include 10 yen carbonated drinks with two-year-old expiration dates and 38 yen seasoning containers that are one year past their best-before dates.
However, the business is not considered to be in violation of the Japan Agricultural Standards Law because the store has posted a notice clearly stating the products have passed their expired dates.
According to 76-year-old store manager, Fumio Mizuno, he established the small corner for expired products on a tatami mat-sized space on the second floor of the market several years ago.
The area contains a display board bearing the corner’s title, the name of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai and the message “Banzai [for Wangari’s winning of the] Peace Prize!”
Maathai, a Kenyan, advocates the “mottainai” concept, which encourages people not to waste food and goods.
The corner also contains a sign that identifies the goods as expired and claims that the products “have been tasted and their quality has been confirmed.”
Some of the items available at the corner are packs of tea bags and carbonized beverages that expired in November 2006. The corner also contains juice products and canned foods that expired from six months to a year ago.
Many of the products cost 99 yen or less. For example, a package of dokudami Chinese herb tea that expired in October 2006 is on sale for 98 yen.
According to Mizuno, the store purchased the products through normal channels, but was unable to sell them.
The manager said he had personally confirmed the quality of the products by tasting them before moving them to the corner.
“During the war, we ate things that had been dropped on the ground,” Mizuno said. “But nowadays, people throw away large amounts of edible food. I think such an act is tantamount to a crime.”
However, the manufacturers of the products sold in the corner are annoyed about this unusual business.
A manufacturing official said, “We’re concerned [the corner] could damage our image.”
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, food sales only violate the Food Sanitation Law if the products sold cause a health hazard or germs are detected in the items. Meanwhile, the business selling the foodstuffs is not considered to be in violation of the law if expiration dates on the products are correctly labelled.
In the Sankei Super case, the ward’s public health center reportedly instructed to remove the corner verbally and in writing several times, but the store did not follow the instructions.
An official of the public health center said, “We never imagined a store would sell items that had expired over two years ago. We have to trust the managers.”
The supermarket is known locally as a discount shop.
“It would’ve made some sense if the items had only expired a few days ago--but two years?” a 57-year-old female store shopper said. “Although, maybe we shouldn’t complain because the items are really cheap.”
Another 56-year-old female customer said: “People buying the items are responsible for checking what they buy. Laws don’t apply to people who are hungry and can’t afford to buy food [at regular prices].”
Under the Food Sanitation Law and Japanese Agricultural Standards regulations, makers normally set shomi kigen (best-before) dates or shohi kigen (use-by) dates for manufactured food products.
Shomi kigen dates are used for products, that have slow quality deterioration, including canned foods, snacks and pouch foods. Some of these types of foods are still edible after the dates have passed.
Shohi kigen dates are used for bento boxed meals and prepared meals that spoil at a much faster rate. Eating these types of products after they have expired is not recommended.
1 comment:
2-Year-Old Soda, Anyone?
9 December 2008
A Tokyo supermarket has continued to sell expired food and beverages at bargain prices at its specially established Mottainai Shohin (products too precious to waste) corner.
A Tokyo supermarket has continued to sell expired food and beverages at bargain prices at its specially established Mottainai Shohin (products too precious to waste) corner even after a local health center instructed the store manager to stop the practice, it has been learned.
The products on sale at Sankei Super in Koto Ward, Tokyo, include 10 yen carbonated drinks with two-year-old expiration dates and 38 yen seasoning containers that are one year past their best-before dates.
However, the business is not considered to be in violation of the Japan Agricultural Standards Law because the store has posted a notice clearly stating the products have passed their expired dates.
According to 76-year-old store manager, Fumio Mizuno, he established the small corner for expired products on a tatami mat-sized space on the second floor of the market several years ago.
The area contains a display board bearing the corner’s title, the name of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai and the message “Banzai [for Wangari’s winning of the] Peace Prize!”
Maathai, a Kenyan, advocates the “mottainai” concept, which encourages people not to waste food and goods.
The corner also contains a sign that identifies the goods as expired and claims that the products “have been tasted and their quality has been confirmed.”
Some of the items available at the corner are packs of tea bags and carbonized beverages that expired in November 2006. The corner also contains juice products and canned foods that expired from six months to a year ago.
Many of the products cost 99 yen or less. For example, a package of dokudami Chinese herb tea that expired in October 2006 is on sale for 98 yen.
According to Mizuno, the store purchased the products through normal channels, but was unable to sell them.
The manager said he had personally confirmed the quality of the products by tasting them before moving them to the corner.
“During the war, we ate things that had been dropped on the ground,” Mizuno said. “But nowadays, people throw away large amounts of edible food. I think such an act is tantamount to a crime.”
However, the manufacturers of the products sold in the corner are annoyed about this unusual business.
A manufacturing official said, “We’re concerned [the corner] could damage our image.”
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, food sales only violate the Food Sanitation Law if the products sold cause a health hazard or germs are detected in the items. Meanwhile, the business selling the foodstuffs is not considered to be in violation of the law if expiration dates on the products are correctly labelled.
In the Sankei Super case, the ward’s public health center reportedly instructed to remove the corner verbally and in writing several times, but the store did not follow the instructions.
An official of the public health center said, “We never imagined a store would sell items that had expired over two years ago. We have to trust the managers.”
The supermarket is known locally as a discount shop.
“It would’ve made some sense if the items had only expired a few days ago--but two years?” a 57-year-old female store shopper said. “Although, maybe we shouldn’t complain because the items are really cheap.”
Another 56-year-old female customer said: “People buying the items are responsible for checking what they buy. Laws don’t apply to people who are hungry and can’t afford to buy food [at regular prices].”
Under the Food Sanitation Law and Japanese Agricultural Standards regulations, makers normally set shomi kigen (best-before) dates or shohi kigen (use-by) dates for manufactured food products.
Shomi kigen dates are used for products, that have slow quality deterioration, including canned foods, snacks and pouch foods. Some of these types of foods are still edible after the dates have passed.
Shohi kigen dates are used for bento boxed meals and prepared meals that spoil at a much faster rate. Eating these types of products after they have expired is not recommended.
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