Grocery store apologizes after mom finds outdated baby food still on shelves

SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Ne — A scary moment for a Siouxland mom, who discovered her recently purchased baby yogurt was months past its best by date after feeding it to her child.

It's a good reminder for consumers to check the best by and expiration dates for food products before you make a purchase.

Now a local mom, who asked not to be on camera is recommending all consumers to be proactive when it comes to checking those dates.

"Two weeks ago I bought the baby food here," said the mother of two who discovered something was off about her recent purchase of a Gerber brand baby yogurt.

"I just decided to check expiration date of that yogurt. What I found was, I don't have words to describe it. This yogurt was expired May of 2018," she said.

She made that discovery Friday night after feeding it to her baby girl.

"I was mad. Really mad," she said.

She returned to the South Sioux City Hy-Vee on Saturday afternoon, for a refund and asked them why these baby foods were still left on the shelves.

"Some part of me as mother said, there are many other babies, who had been feeding with this yogurt," she said.

So she took action.

"I didn't went back to buy another yogurt but I just wanted to make sure they were there pulling those yogurt out of the shelf or at least they already did it," she said.

We decided to see for ourselves only to find out the outdated product had yet to be removed.

"I am really upset right now to see the product is still here," she said.

This Gerber Yogurt Blends Snack with best by dates from April, May and June.

We reached out to the assistant manager who immediately responded.

"Is there any reason why this is still on the shelf?" said Jetske Wauran.

"There should be no reason. This is inexcusable," said the South Sioux City Hy-Vee Assistant Manager.

The manager removed the product right away and apologized to the customer, offering a full refund for her purchase.

Shortly after that, we returned to the same aisle, where we found similar products also passed their best by dates.

"We do try our best to watch. We do need our consumers to try and help us too. We all got to try to work together too. It is our fault for leaving this on, it should have been caught," said the South Sioux City Hy-Vee Assistant Manager.

We also want to clarify the difference between an expiration date and a best by date. According to the USDA website, a best used by indicates a product will be of best flavor or quality, it is not a purchase or safety date.

While a used by or expiration date, is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is always best to use your judgement before consuming any food product.

We received a statement from Hy-Vee regarding this matter.

"We take this incident very seriously and want to apologize to the customer for our mistake. Our standard procedure was not followed in this situation. Should there be a report of an expired product at Hy-Vee, our protocol is to immediately send a management team to inspect the shelf stock. Since learning about this situation, we have reviewed procedures with our managers and are in the process of re-educating our employees about this topic. We also are in the process of going through every single product on the shelves in our baby aisle - as well as the rest of the store at all of our local Hy-Vees - to double check all of our products. We encourage our customers who have recently purchased baby food products at the South Sioux City Hy-Vee to check their pantries and make sure they didn’t purchase any of the expired product. If they did, we will automatically provide them with a full refund."