7's On Your Side with a good reason to check your groceries for those use-by dates. ABC7's Kris Van Cleave checked grocery stores across the region, and found expired food in each.

Continue reading

You may recall a 2008 7 On Your Side investigation at the Aldi in Woodbridge. When we returned this year, we found expired meats for sale -- days past the Jan. 14 or 15 use-by dates on the package.

The store manager was displeased, and evicted the crew.

Van Cleave found a Big Lots store down the street that was selling organic baby food more than one month after the jar's use-by date.

At the Shoppers Food Warehouse in Alexandria, ABC7 found an entire cartload of out-of-date meats.

In the frozen section, ABC7's hidden camera spotted sardines with a "best by" date of November 2007. It was packaged in 2005.

In most cases non-perishable food is safe to eat for a while after the expiration date. But company policy usually forbids its sale. Each store at which ABC7 shopped says it has gone back and removed any expired products. (Their responses are after the jump)