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Business & Tech

Local Blogger: Hundreds of Expired Food Items at LITH Dominick's

Some items on shelves expired in 2007.

After finding hundreds of expired food items at the this past week, coupon-blogger and Huntley resident Jill Cataldo brought the problem to the attention of Chicago media.

Since then, Cataldo said Dominick's employees have, according to her readers, been clearing shelves. Cataldo authors a popular couponing blog

After more than a year of trying to get Dominick's officials to listen to her concerns about expired products--and after hearing from one of her readers who reported feeding her family frozen meatballs she recently bought at the Carpentersville Dominick's with a 2007 expiration--she took matters into her own hands.

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"I usually don't take an activist angle. It was just really disturbing,'' said Cataldo, a journalist. "As a mom, I started thinking about what if it had been my kids (that ate the meatballs).''

After filling three carts with 425 expired items on Feb. 10th at the Carpentersville Dominick's, she and a reader went to the Lake in the Hills store, 101 N. Randall Road,  on Tuesday where they had no trouble filling three carts with 336 expired items in just one hour, she said.

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"We found enough to know there's a big problem,'' Cataldo said, adding that many times every bottle or can of one product was expired.

"It wasn't just one bottle of barbecue sauce, it was 30 bottles,'' she said. 

Since local media picked up the story, readers have reported to Cataldo that they have seen Dominick's employees clearing shelves of expired items.

"It's good to me that the awareness is being raised,'' she said. "Do I want Dominick's to close? No. I just want it to be a safe place to shop.''

Cataldo also said she visited the local Meijer and Jewel stores out of curiosity and couldn't find one expired item.

She has approached Dominick's officials on and off for more than a year telling them her concerns, she said, adding, they're finally listening.

"I don't think they realized the reach of my blog. They do now,'' she said. "I don't know what the problem is. They're not really speaking.''

In a statement to Lake in the Hills Patch, Dominick's said they were displeased with the out-dated products.

"This is not indicative of how we do business," according to the statement. "A high-level and highest-priority team has been assembled to immediately address these issues."

On a side note, Cataldo said she bought a few items during her trips to Dominick's looking for expired items, including a package of frozen chicken burgers that were free when you spent $15. When she went to cook them, she discovered they expired in November.

"This was a product featured on the ad -- on the front page,'' she said.

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