Sell By Date

Today is April 16th. I popped into my local grocery store this morning and picked up some ice cream for a work potluck. While I was there I grabbed a store brand "homemade" soup from the deli department. Who can pass up baked potato soup? Yummy!!





I ate if for lunch and finished it for dinner. While I was rinsing out the plastic container before I put it in the recycle bin, I noticed the "sell by" date on the bottom of the plastic container. Sell by was 04/07/10.

Was I going to be sick with some bacteria riddled soup? Would I be spending the night hugging the porcelain throne, puking and retching? NOT. I've have a rock hard constitution and highly doubt that I will get sick. The soup tasted fine and I'm sure it was fine.

So I called the grocery store where I bought the soup. The gal that answered the phone was freaking out about the whole situation and was happy to forward my call to the deli manager. I spoke with Chris who was very apologetic and mortified and ready to refund by money. I told him that I was not in it for the money but rather what quality controls they have in place. I told him that maybe other people (you children, old people) might have less tolerance for the outdated soup. He was wonderful and asked me to stop by and say hi next time I was in the store. GREAT way to handle it!!

So what does the "sell date" really mean? The soup was fine and I enjoyed eating it!