Filthy food habits cost Perth Woolworths $100,000

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Douglas Powell

I prefer to shop at Coles, but there is a few things I get from Woolies, especially since it’s on the way to and from school. She has a preference for tiger bread (I know it’s just white bread with stripes, but it’s on her way to swimming which is a decent bike ride, followed by an hour of laps, so for an 8-year-old, I’m not concerned about the empty calories.

Emma Young of The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Woolworths at Madeley’s Kingsway City must cough up $100,000-plus after numerous public health offences.

The conviction will result in a fine of $95,000 and costs of $7000 to Woolworths, which the City of Wanneroo began inspecting in October 2015 after a member of the public complained about their Woolworths brand Crusty Tiger Loaf, which was found to be ‘unsuitable for sale.’

“The inspection found that Woolworths were not in compliance with a number of food standard codes,” planning and sustainability director Mark Dickson said.

Woolworths was found to have failed to ensure its food handlers were skilled in food safety and food hygiene. It also failed to store food to protect it from contamination, failed to keep the store and its equipment clean and failed to “process only safe and suitable food”.

Evidence of pests was also found.

Woolworths pleaded guilty to all charges.

“The City’s follow-up inspections found that the issues were rectified,” Mr Dickson said.

No more tiger bread.

Everyone’s got a camera: Australian supermarket duopoly edition

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Douglas Powell

A Brisbane man says he will stop shopping at Coles after he found dozens of tiny insects in a sealed packed of pasta.

Masood Rahimi, 29, said he bought the 500g packet of Coles brand Bowties pasta in New Farm over a week ago.

It wasn’t until he was about to open it on Sunday when a friend noticed something moving around inside.

Mr Rahimi said there were maybe 50 to 100 bugs inside the packet, which he threw away.

He said he made a video of bugs and uploaded it to Coles’ Facebook page but didn’t think it would cause an impact.

At Woolworths, a mouse was found eating biscuits in the bakery aisle.

South Australian man Mickey Young was shopping at Woolworths Port Lincoln at the weekend when another shopper noticed a mouse eating a biscuit inside a display cabinet in the bakery aisle.

Mr Young, who is a baker himself, began filming the mouse eating the sweet treat before it ran off.

Woolworths has launched an investigation and begun pest control following the sighting.

Everything’s bigger in Aus: Poisonous spider in bunch of broccoli purchased at Woolworths

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Douglas Powell

It’s every vegetable hater and arachnophobe’s worst nightmare — spiders hiding among your greens.

Supermarket giant Woolworths has been forced to pull broccoli from three suppliers off its shelves after deadly redback spiders were discovered hiding among the vegetables.

It is understood the withdrawal affects stores across Queensland and New South Wales.

In the first case, a Gold Coast woman got a little bit more than she bargained for when she washed some broccoli on Saturday night.

She discovered a redback spider lurking in the veggies.

Dee Nott bought the broccoli earlier that day from the Woolworths supermarket in Runaway Bay.

The shocked woman was so upset about her close encounter with the poisonous critter that she took a photograph of it and posted it on Woolworths’ Facebook page.

“Hi team Woolworths. I just had a nasty surprise — a live redback spider in my broccoli purchased today at your Runaway Bay store,” she says in her post.

She placed the venomous spider in her freezer for the night and had planned to return for a full refund the next day.”

“We’re very concerned about this, Dee, and take incidents like this very seriously,” Woolworths responded.

‘Free fruit for kids’ PR stunt backfires for Australian grocery chain

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Woolworth’s in Australia is giving away free fruit to kids.

This has sparked some sort of hygiene uproar.

But it’s wrong.

As I told Elizabeth Weise of USA Today back in 2012, all washing of produce might do is “remove the snot that some 3-year-old blew onto the food at the grocery store.” Washing “lowers the pathogen count a little, but not to safe levels if it’s contaminated.”

The key to safe produce is food safety protocols – and verification – beginning on the farm through to retail, like Woolies.

But Woolies won’t talk about that, or market it, so I stay away.

Woolies’ “free fruit for kids” initiative has backfired, with shoppers complaining the basket of apples and bananas is unhygienic.

The supermarket giant announced the program in November, claiming it would “help children eat their recommended two serves of fruit a day and is part of Woolworths commitment to inspire a healthier Australia.”

But customers have raised concerns that kids often have dirty hands and encouraging them to touch and eat fruit in-store could spread worms or other infectious disease.

“It’s unhygienic,” Kathy, a customer in Surry Hills, Sydney, told news.com.au. “Parents should be responsible for feeding their kids, having foods there unmonitored is a bad idea.”

On a Reddit thread on the free fruit scheme, Svedka posted, “Seriously though, that’s how you get worms”, while another user added, “Cue fruit peels left in strange places around the store, and kids with pear-juice hands touching things.”

The plan was derided as “cheap advertising” and an effort by beleaguered Woolies to “attract families back to their stores

But other shoppers applauded the plan, with Alex McCowan telling news.com.au: “I don’t think it’s unhygienic. They have fruit sitting there anyway for people to buy and eat. It’s a good idea to get kids to eat more fruit. Food’s expensive, so it helps families.”

‘We have comprehensive food safety standards’ Wooden object found in breadrolls bought at Australian Woolworths

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Douglas Powell

When a woman from Gailes fed her hungry niece a basic ham and cheese sandwich she got a mouthful she wasn’t expecting.

Tanya Frost who was babysitting her niece Samantha, 7, made the sandwich using breadrolls purchased from Woolworths at Orion Springfield.

She said Samantha was halfway through the sandwich when she found a wooden object, bigger than a toothpick in the bread.

“It was hanging out of her mouth. I was so shocked because that’s something a child could swallow,” Ms Frost told the Springfield News.

“I checked her mouth and made sure she had no chipped teeth or worse.”

“My parents took the stick and the breadrolls and spoke to the manager of the bakery,” she said.

“She couldn’t really explain how it happened.

“She said they knead the dough by hand, but there were machines there. Then she said they use the machines and then knead it but use their hands to take it out then lay it flat and place the mould over it.”

Ms Frost said the manager denied the wooden object could have been a result of poor bakery practice or faulty machinery.

“The lady did apologise and gave our money back. She also gave us a six pack of new breadrolls,” she said.

A Woolworths spokesperson told the South-West News that, “We have comprehensive food safety and quality standards in place to ensure we are delivering the highest quality products to our customers.”

Careful with barf: Queensland woman sues Woolworths over vomit slip

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Douglas Powell

A Queensland woman is suing Woolworths for $750,000 after she slipped on a puddle of an employee’s vomit near the entrance of the Ipswich store.

Before the fall Jennifer Hunt said she was a fit woman who cared for her husband, but the Courier Mail reports she now relies on her daughter to be her carer.

“I’d just walked in. I didn’t even see it. I just went down,” she said.

“At first I thought it was orange juice, but then I smelt it and thought ‘This is somebody’s vomit’.”

The claim states Mrs Hunt injured her lower back, left hip, her knees and her left foot in the fall in November 30, 2012.

The supermarket chain has disputed the extent of her injuries.

Mango chicken pasta salad recalled for Listeria in W. Australia

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Douglas Powell

As is typical for the Australians, no information on how the Listeria-positive was detected, and no information on whether anyone is sick.

Taxpayer-funded public communications at it finest.

Zimbulis has recalled Caribbean Mango Chicken Pasta salad from the deli section of Woolworths Supermarkets, IGAs and small corner stores in WA only, due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Listeria monocytogenes may cause illness in pregnant women and their unborn babies, the elderly and people with low immune systems. Consumers should not eat this product. Consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice, and should return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Australian family find mouse in rice paper roll, welcome police involvement

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Douglas Powell

The family of a woman who says she bit into a dead mouse in a rice paper roll bought at a supermarket say they welcome police involvement because it will prove their innocence.

Emilie Petrusic, daughter of Irena Petrusic who got the shock of her life when she found the rodent in the snack bought at Woolworths Broadbeach on Sunday, said the investigation should be treated as a police case because it was serious.

Woolworths and Gold Coast Health have been liaising with police on the matter, which came after Ms Petrusic and her daughter reported the incident to the store immediately.

Gold Coast Health still remain the chief investigators because nothing criminal has been found and no formal complaint made.

A statement by Woolworths on Monday said the mouse entered the product after it left the store, even though that is yet to be confirmed.

Health unit head Dr Paul Van Buynder said their investigation was now focused on how the rodent could have ended up in the roll, with tests taking place on the product in Brisbane.

“What we’re hoping to get from that is does it show signs of being cut up in preparation,” he said.

“This is fresh product so to add something in is really difficult.

“We’re still completing a review of the ingredients — could the mouse have come in with the sliced carrot. We’re making sure it’s not possible to crush a rodent and send it in with the lettuce leaves used.”

Dr Van Buynder said they did not believe there was a problem with the way the food was prepared in store and that was why it was still open.

The investigation was now focused on how the rodent could have ended up in the roll, with tests taking place on the product in Brisbane.

Emilie said they did not care if people did not believe them because those who knew them knew had what happened.

“I don’t know what sick person would do that,” she said.

“A police investigation needs to be done. It’s just like a murder case. If it was a murder case, police would take fingerprints and there’s so much evidence.

“It’s just sad what Woolworths have said, how they’ve gone about it. They’re trying to save themselves.”

A Woolworths spokesman said the company took food safety extremely seriously and the store had been given the all clear to continue making and selling sushi products.

Veg growers slam Woolies’ Jamie Oliver fee in Australia, as they should

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Maybe celebtard chef Jamie Oliver has some sort of chromosomal disorder: regardless, he knows shit about food safety and freely admits he doesn’t read.

So why Woolworths would hire him to be their spokesthingy in Australia is beyond baffling.

Ausveg says growers have received requests from Woolworths to voluntarily pay a charge towards the costs of the new “Jamie’s Garden” promotion, equal to 40 cents a crate of produce sold to the supermarket.

While Woolworths says the request is voluntary, Ausveg national marketing manager Simon Coburn says growers are not in a position to say no.

“The growers feel like they are in a position that, if they were to say no, they are worried that their contracts would be reduced or terminated completely,” Mr Coburn said.

He said growers already paid a charge of 2.5 per cent to five per cent of their sales back to Woolworths to cover marketing costs, and the 40-cent charge was in addition to that.

The cost would range from a few thousand dollars to $250,000 for a grower, depending on the size of their contract, he said.

“Some are telling us they don’t have 40 cents left in their margins,” Mr Coburn said.

Woolworths said it was disappointed Ausveg and Senator Xenophon had not contacted the supermarket before going public.

In other celebtard news, Gwyneth Paltrow says that water has feelings and can purify itself if you talk real nice to it.

And Greek yogurt giant Chobani says there’s no science in their yogurt; just mold that causes recalls.

Australian Woolworths investigates mushroom poisoning

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Canberra residents who may be feeling ill after consuming mushrooms bought from a Woolworths supermarket are being advised to seek immediate medical attention following a possible Death Cap mushroom poisoning.

ACT Health is investigating after three patients from the same household attended Canberra’s Calvary Hospital in the last 48 hours with poisoning symptoms.

They claim to have been affected by mushrooms purchased from a Woolworths in the suburb of Dickson on April 17.

“This appears to be an isolated incident and there have been no other recent reports of Death Cap mushroom poisoning in the ACT,” the territory’s chief health officer Dr Paul Kelly said.

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