WHEN YOU’VE BOUGHT EXPIRED GOODS

Not everyone who buys products at their favourite supermarket remembers to check the expiry date. If however, like some persons, you do so after taking the goods home, what can you do about it? What exactly are the rights of the consumer regarding expired goods – more particularly food and drugs?

Though there is no specific legislation, which governs this issue, “it is a matter of common law and once the goods are expired, they are not merchantable and therefore should not be on the shelf,” one lawyer informed the Exchange. “If such items are picked up in error, the vendor is supposed to take it back.”

The lawyer’s advice was echoed by the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC), the local consumer rights watchdog.

“The consumer is entitled to some sort of redress, we assume that they need the product, so it should be replaced,” said Tanikie McClarthy, Communication Specialist at the CAC. If the good cannot be replaced, then a refund should be made available, she further explained.

Receipts, according to McClarthy, would come in very handy here as they can be presented as proof that the goods were actually purchased at a particular location and also prove the date of purchase.

A spokesman at SuperPlus supermarket said that as long as a consumer presents a receipt upon returning a product, then there should be no hassle in obtaining a refund or exchange.

Another factor, which comes into play when determining whether someone is given redress, is the timeframe within which the consumer returns the goods.

According to the SuperPlus spokesman, sometimes consumers who report expired items are given grace periods within which to return these goods granted that the receipts are retained. It is left up to the consumer’s discretion as to how long to hold a purchased item before actually attempting to return it.

For food items, like eggs, which do not carry an expiry date, the onus is on the retailer to make sure these are always fresh. If, however, the consumer holds such an item for too long without using it, then the vendors bears no responsibility.