Aussie mum finds 'strange' detail in her pack of Coles crumpet rounds
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A mum has spoken to Yahoo! News Australia about a 'strange' discovery she found in her pack of store-bought food.
Elisha Bannerman, a mum from New South Wales, recently went on her weekly grocery run and purchased a pack of Coles brand traditional crumpet rounds from her local supermarket.
However, she and her family were already halfway through the pack of bread when the mum discovered a 'strange' detail – apparently, one of the loaves has a use-by date directly printed on it.
"That crumpet is out of a six-pack and it’s the third one from the top so I’m not sure how it got stamped," questioned Elisha, sharing a photo of the bread in question.
Pictured below, the use-by date is fully visible and appears to have been stamped directly on the flat side of the popular morning tea item.
"I'm also unsure if my children or I have eaten any other stamped ones," she added.
The stamped crumpet was found in the middle of the pack of the Coles brand crumpets. Credit: Facebook/Elisha Bannerman.
Coles has already reached out and addressed the incident with Elisha, offering her assurance that they will be investigating the unusual situation with their supplier.
The mum accepted that the supermarket was not at fault and this was a one-off issue on their part. She even joked about the codes being "a little hard to read'' when stamped on a crumpet.
Supermarket giant Coles has policies in place to protect its customers in the event that a food or grocery item is not satisfactory in some way. On their website, they actually encourage customers who are not 100 per cent satisfied with their purchase to return the product and ask for a replacement or a refund.
In Australia and New Zealand, there are food packaging laws in place – regulated by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) – to ensure food in contact with packaging is safe for consumers.
In a survey conducted by the FSANZ, they found that the levels of chemicals from food packaging in Australian foods are very low and unlikely to be of public health concern. This includes printing inks that are used in labels and use-by dates.
So while it may seem unusual to see use-by dates stamped directly onto your food, they are generally not harmful. But these incidents are still a valid concern for consumers and we should always demand better quality control from manufacturers and retailers.
Have you experienced a similar incident like this before, members? Share it with us in the comments below!