Chinese Walmart and Carrefour fined for selling expired food

Walmart China and Carrefour China have apologized for selling expired food in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan Province.

The Wal-Mart and Carrefour stores have been investigated by The Changsha Administration for Industry and Commerce after receiving complaints that expired frozen rice dumplings and shrimps were sold there.

The administration has confiscated the expired products and ordered the suppliers to refund buyers 10 times the sum they paid.

Wal-Mart China and Carrefour China were also each fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,567) for turning a blind eye to the illegal practice.

Supermarkets are supposed to return expired packaged foods to suppliers, but sometimes suppliers alter the date and return goods to retailers again. Officials blamed supermarkets for not being “gatekeepers.”

In southwest China’s Chongqing, authorities discovered that since the beginning of this year Wal-Mart stores have sold more than 1,000 kilograms of ordinary pork as organic produce at higher prices. Wal-Mart is said to have made 1.9 million yuan from the practice.

The Chongqing government shut 10 Wal-Mart stores that were involved and fined Wal-Mart China 2.69 million yuan. Police questioned 37 people, 25 of whom were detained.

Chongqing officials have pulled up Wal-Mart stores 21 times for false advertising and selling shoddy produce since it opened its first store there in 2006, including eight times this year alone.

Short URL: http://www.internationalsupermarketnews.com/?p=5256

Posted by admin on Oct 17 2011. Filed under Asia, Retail News, Supermarkets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry