According to documents obtained through an access to information request, 12 supermarkets have been given a total of 14 citations over the past two years for changing expiry date labels on food.

The changed dates vary from as little as one day to as much as two months, and ranged from raw chicken to bacon, mussels and salmon.

“There are foods you don’t mess with,” nutritionist Stephanie Cote said. “Meat, poultry and fish especially.”

Jean-Christophe Cognault, who manages another Montreal-area grocery store, said “the practice is much more common than these 12 supermarkets.

“It’s just that most of them are never caught.”

Cognault used to work for a large supermarket. He shared a few tricks that grocers use to modify best-before and expiry dates.

“For steak, you cut off the meat that’s gone brown on the sides and repackage it,” he said.