To mitigate the damage done to his business following a Global Okanagan investigative report where employees of Valoroso Market alleged they are asked to alter expiry and best before date labels on products, the store owner has issued a statement about how they intend to move forward along with an apology.
“When we learned of the concern of the freshness of our products, we immediately closed all open orders with customers and stopped shipments,” said Joe Valoroso, on their website, Friday.
Doors to the store were also closed Saturday, with the expectation they’d be open Monday. Valoroso said the measure will allow staff to conduct a complete a full inventory of all products within their retail outlets and our warehouse.
“Our inventory control will include tracking the complete chain of command for each and every product in our company, when it was shipped to us, and the date of expiry,” he wrote. “All old inventory will be disposed of and that disposition will be reported to the CFIA. Any dried products, such as pasta, that still has shelf life but is past the posted expiry dates will be clearly labeled for discounting for customers.”
Moving forward, their long terms plans are to implement new inventory software. This change has been already been underway, he said, and the software will be part of their inventory control that began seven days ago and will continue tomorrow and over the weekend.
“I would once again apologize to our valued and loyal customers. If we have broken your trust, we are extremely sorry and we hope that our action over the next days and next months will help rebuild that trust that we once held,” he wrote.
“I also want to assure our customers that Valoroso Foods will also be taking steps over the next while to expand training of staff to ensure they have the highest degree of understanding of the products and their shelf life.”
He also said that he wanted to keep lines of communication open, and if customers had questions, concerns or issues of any kind, they should report them.
“Together we can ensure that all procedures for stocking food products remain safe,” he said.
Whether the apology and change of course will be enough to regain consumer confidence remains to be seen, as the topic has sparked a firestorm of angry commentary on social media and on online forums.
Former employees alleged best before and expiry dates on some food were changed, according to Global Okanagan report. Valoroso denied those accusations.
A number of complaints have been made to Interior Health, which were investigated and forwarded to the Food Inspection Agency, Global reported.
