By Aimee Shaw of 
The Christchurch Countdown has come under fire for selling expired food. Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
More shoppers have come forward with claims of Countdown Moorhouse selling expired food, including garlic bread, mayonnaise and meat.
It comes just weeks after initial complaints of expired salmon and kingfish being sold at the Christchurch supermarket.
Supermarket chain Countdown blamed the "expired" fish on an issue with the shelf life of the fish having been incorrectly loaded into its system.
But a man who spoke to Stuff said he was alerted to the issue by the off-looking "yellow salmon".
Christchurch local David Rea came across an entire row of "expired" salmon at Christchurch Moorhouse during his weekly shop in the lead-up to Christmas.
He found a piece of salmon on sale that said it was 19 days past its use-by date and found that the expiry dates on some other fish products had been changed by up to two weeks.
Stuff has received complaints and photos of other expired grocery items since.
One shopper said his wife visited Countdown Moorhouse on Christmas Eve to pick up some groceries. But when they opened the garlic bread to heat and serve it on Christmas Day, they found that it was covered in thick mould.
A look at the packet showed the garlic bread had a use-by date of 30 October.
The man said his family was shocked.
He said he believed there were "systematic failures" and that the store's expiry checking practices were "woeful".
Mouldy garlic bread bought from a Countdown store in Christchurch. Photo: Supplied / Stuff
Another distressed shopper who contacted Stuff said his wife had purchased salad dressing from Countdown Moorhouse, only to find upon closer inspection that the product had expired a year earlier.
He said his family now double-checked all products selected at the store to make sure they were still within the use-by date.
"We shop at this store and have learned to check everything they sell closely for expired items.
"It's one thing to buy short-dated stock knowingly and at a reduced price, but not much fun when you have the grandkids over for tea, and they notice that the salad dressing that was brought a month ago, expired a year ago."
The shoppers said it was unacceptable that expired food was available on the shelf and able to be purchased.
Countdown said food safety was its "utmost priority" and it had "robust food safety procedures and processes" in place across the business, which were regularly audited both internally and by MPI.
The spokeswoman said staff at the Moorhouse store were completing "stock rotation" refresher training.
"While we are confident there isn't a widespread issue at Countdown Moorhouse, with more than 30,000 products for sale in store, the occasional mistake does happen, and our Moorhouse team are completing refresher training regarding stock rotation along with completing a full perishables date-check today, to provide further confidence for our customers."
Countdown urged customers to contact its customer care team if there were concerns or questions about a particular date on a product or about food safety standards.
* This story originally appeared on Stuff.
