A shopper noticed a double label on a package of salmon at Costco, revealing a completely different expiration date underneath. The issue? The new label made the Kirkland Signature sockeye salmon appear fresher than it may actually have been, possibly tricking shoppers into purchasing something slightly older than they thought.
What happened at this Costco?
TikToker @atomicmathlete spotted the discrepancy while shopping. In their video, they easily peeled back the label to reveal a two-day difference in the sell-by date. The package was marked to “sell by” Oct. 3, but the original label listed Oct. 1.
In their caption, they wrote, “Me and my mom were shopping at Costco and she was gonna buy the salmon when she noticed that all of them were double labelled. She peeled back a few of them and they were also not fresh.”
Some commenters thought the change was deceptive, while others said it was not a big deal.
“Sometimes people make mistakes on labels. I’ve seen them mark prime beef as choice then sticker it back over as prime. So not out of the ordinary,” one person wrote.
“It was put on sale. [The] tag on top is cheaper. The [two]-day difference in shelf life was [probably just] a mistake. Not that crazy,” another said.
What expiration dates actually mean
According to research conducted by the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School, labels are an indication of when food tastes best, not when it’s unsafe to eat. A “best by” date tells consumers when food is expected to be the freshest. It does not guarantee the product’s safety, as some commenters implied.
“There is nothing concrete for these dates related to foodborne illness,” Dr. Andrea Gillin, a postdoctoral research fellow and registered dietitian at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told The Guardian for one of their articles. The article further indicated that food dates are only there to indicate quality and are not actually regulated by any federal agency.
Expiration dates usually indicate when food will taste best or represent the brand at its intended quality. With fish, however, caution is warranted since they can contain harmful bacteria and contaminants. Gillin advised consumers to look for signs of spoilage rather than relying on dates. For fish, that includes a foul odor, discoloration, and a soft or mushy texture.
Are they safe?
Because these dates are advisory, companies cannot universally declare food “safe” or “unsafe” simply by labeling it, so looking at the sell-by dates as a “sign” not to purchase the fish is slightly misguided. A company may have a good idea of when the fish will be the freshest and best for consumption, but fish will not immediately spoil upon hitting its best-buy date. Rather, fish generally go “bad” after three days unfrozen.
That does mean that Costco changing the best-buy date makes a huge difference in the fish quality when selling it, but it’s difficult to know whether the double label was an error or an actual malicious change to the product’s best-buy date.
@atomicmathlete PLZ REPOST TO SPREAD AWARENESS Me and my mom were shopping at costco and she was gonna buy the salmon when she noticed that all of them were double labelled. She peeled back a few of them and they were also not fresh. #costco #scam #viral #fyp ♬ original sound – Emo Nerd™
Why the double label at Costco?
It is possible the original label was a mistake. Costco freezes all its salmon before selling it, so the product might not have been thawed on the intended date. Employees may have reprinted a label two days later when it was actually set out for sale.
One TikTok commenter suggested this explanation: “It was previously frozen. They probably forgot to set it out on that date so they switched the date.”
Another said, “Sometimes they have the wrong date set on the scale when they print so they probably updated it and made new labels.”
For now, it remains unclear why the Costco salmon had two different expiration dates, leaving some shoppers uneasy about purchasing fish from the retail giant.
The Mary Sue has reached out to @atomicmathlete via TikTok direct message and to Costco’s press team for comment.
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