CHANDLER, Ariz. — Bashas’ here is investigating details of a report by a union-funded group that alleges the chain sold expired infant formula, Bashas’ president and chief operating officer, Mike Proulx, told SN. “The union report was very well crafted, and we see some areas that are obviously not valid, but we’re diligently going through all of it,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult and time-consuming to ascertain information store by store, but we’re using all of our resources to do just that.” In a release issued June 27, a “community project” funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers, called Hungry for Respect, claimed that shopping trips to 105 of the approximately 157 Bashas’-owned stores operating under the Bashas’ Supermarkets, Food City and AJ’s Fine Foods banners in Arizona revealed that “a staggering 58% of the Bashas’ Supermarkets stores visited and more than half of the Food City stores visited in the Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma areas stocked expired infant formula.” Hungry for Respect also alleged that 10% of the AJ’s Fine Food stores visited sold expired formula. The organization didn’t return SN’s request for comment. “Women, Infant and Children program inspectors visit our stores, and we’ve had no out-of-date code in the last two years,” noted Proulx, who deemed the report unfounded. “In-store policies and procedures are in place to ensure against this. Our distribution centers also have practices in place to ensure no out-of-date code goes to our stores.” Wednesday was the first opportunity that Bashas’ was given to inspect the details of the report, Proulx said.
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