Local grocery store takes action

After a video posted on Facebook garnered over 87,000 views by the morning of Sept. 20, Valley Foods in Saratoga is addressing concerns over its food labeling procedures.

The subject of the video was food labeling in the deli, specifically relabeling ready-to-eat food with a later sell by date, approximately two weeks later than the original date.

Tim Lamprecht, owner of Valley Foods, admitted that

the problem of relabeling and re-dating of items had occurred and that steps were taken immediately to rectify the problem.

“We put a sticker over a sticker, which is not illegal, it’s not out of code or anything else, but it gives that consumer a wrong indication of what’s going on, so we stopped that,” Lamprecht said, adding “What they are instructed now is to mark through it and hand write on there what the new price will be versus putting another sticker on it.” Those items are then to be clearly marked as a special sale, according to Lamprecht.

The release of the video prompted an inspection of the store Friday morning by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture (WDA) Consumer Health Services Department (CHS). During the investigation of this story it was revealed that the state inspector who conducted the inspection is also a part-time employee of Valley Foods. This fact was not known by CHS Assistant Manager Linda Stratton, who stated that it is a potential conflict of interest.

Lamprecht is aware that the inspector is an employee and that he had conducted the inspection.

“Friday morning, Kevin (Krouch) who works for me on an occasional basis, inventoried it and we passed with a clean bill of health,” Lamprecht said.

According to Derek Grant, Public Information officer for the WDA, the department cannot comment on ongoing personnel issues but two more inspectors were sent to Valley Foods on Monday.

In the video, items were also marked with a black dot, according to the videographer, to indicate they had been relabeled. At 1:40 p.m. on Friday, presumably after the inspection was completed, items with black dots and sell-by dates increased by 13 days were still in the deli cooler. No relabeled items were observed at the store on the Saturday morning.

The relabeled items on the shelf Friday were credited to the employee who posted the video as she was alone in the deli on Thursday according to Lamprecht. That employee has been at the store about eight weeks and has not yet received food safety training, Lamprecht said.

“After they have been here 90 days then we start (training for) food safety,” Lamprecht said.

Lamprecht and Debbie Thompson, Deli Manager, stated that the relabeled items observed on Friday afternoon were pulled after they were made aware of the situation, “even though it was not outdated,” Thompson said.

Lamprecht stated that the relabeling and re-dating of items in the deli were the act of one person, it is not store policy and actions have been taken to ensure this mistake does not occur again. “We are talking now to all the department managers and making sure they are all … following store policy that we have actually developed ourselves,” adding, “We have a seven day shelf life (policy).” If the customer is not satisfied with a product the store offers a 200 percent money back guarantee.

Lamprecht noted that Valley Foods has passed every state inspection they have undergone. He added that the store is an Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) Five Star Retailer. According to Lamprecht, IGA conducts several unannounced inspections each year. During those inspections IGA checks rotation of items and product dates. “If I had a dating problem, I wouldn’t be a Five Star store,” Lamprecht said.

Regarding the relabeling problem Lamprecht said, “Certainly, we apologize to the community. We strive to be the best store in the Valley.”