The Editor’s Corner | Mot de l’éditeur

By Michael Bournazian, Eng., Newsletter Editor, ASQ Senior Member, Quality Management Professional, CSSGB with Rolls-Royce

Expiry dates. Best before dates. They are in our everyday lives all the time, and as anyone who has done audits during their Quality career knows, they can come up regularly during these activities as well: calibration dates on measuring equipment, expiry dates on chemical products, even certain documents (ex. quality plans, workmanship criteria) may be valid for only a certain period of time or for a certain quantity of product.

But if you have read these posts of mine long enough, you know that I love it when my work life finds a way of barging into my personal life 😉

During my regular weekly grocery shopping recently (March 5, 2023 to be exact), I wanted to buy some Cheez Whiz (yes, I can be a sucker for punishment). I usually buy the light variety with the blue label, however the first jar I grabbed contained the following surprise:

An even bigger surprise was the fact that every single jar that was there (approximately 10 in total) had the same expired Best Before date of February 15, 2023.

Of course, the Quality practitioner in me (as well as someone with a weak stomach) was outraged, although not to the point of losing my cool in the middle of the store. I found the manager on duty and pointed the issue out to him. When I asked him if the grocery store chain had a process on assuring that products with expiry dates get removed once the date is passed, he gave an answer that left me with raised eyebrows . . . “We should”.

I have since raised a customer complaint on the store’s official website and I am awaiting a reply. I know that they are good at responding, as I had raised a complaint back in 2020 when I noticed that some employees were not capable of properly wearing face masks.

We’ll see how this latest complaint (aka FINDING, in AuditorSpeak) gets resolved. In the meantime, you don’t really need Cheez Whiz in your diet, right?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Neither the “C” word nor the “P” word were used during the writing of this article.

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