A Marketplace investigation has revealed date tampering at North America's largest distributor of Italian foods, Santa Maria Foods. Products made or imported by the company - including Mastro meats and olive oil, DeCecco pasta, and Galbani Marscapone cheese - are sold at Sobey's, Loblaws and Dominion, among other chains.

A false sense of security?

Many shoppers rely on the 'best before' date displayed on all foods. It's an assurance of freshness and quality. For some perishable items - such as cheese - the 'best before' date may even relate to safety.

But the 'best before' dates on some products you find in your favourite grocery store are useless.

Marketplace spoke with nearly a dozen people, including former employees of Santa Maria Foods, two Italian manufacturers and Canadian retailers who sell Santa Maria's products across the country.

Two former employees agreed to appear on camera for this story. They insisted that their identities be disguised. They told us that there are hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake - and they're afraid of reprisals for speaking out. They also believe consumers need to hear what they have to say.

Three steps to removing a 'best before' date, as related to Marketplace by former employees of Santa Maria Foods: 1. Remove ink date with acetone 2. Wipe off ink 3. Re-label with a sticker - new date often adds two months to shelf life

"I saw mortadella that had expired, the cryovacs being ripped off and the product being washed," one of the former employees told Marketplace. "It's a cooked product and what happens with cooked meats is a white slime forms on the outside of the meat and it can be washed off and then recryovacked and shipped out to consumers."

"In the case of pastas," the former employee continued, "DeCecco pasta... had a date stamped on the bottom of the box in black ink. Of course they couldn't get the black ink out of the cardboard, so they'd take Liquid Paper, cover it up and put a computer-generated sticker over the top... and ship it to the customer."

Company's products across the country

Santa Maria is a big company with offices and warehouses in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. It specializes in Italian food products and manufactures its own house brands, under the Mastro name. The company also imports products such as coffee, pasta and mascarpone cheese, mainly from Italy. Products with a shelf life of 90 days or less, including some cheeses, must have a 'best before' date. Pasta, oil and coffee don't need one. But if they do carry a 'best before' date, it cannot be changed.

Santa Maria's clients include small specialty stores and major grocery chains. The company products are also used by caterers and in restaurants.

"With the mascarpone cheese," a second former employee told Marketplace, "it comes from Italy with a date stamp on it. What has been done is a chemical... has been used to wipe off the date and thereafter they stick on a 'best before'... date afterwards in paper."

The former employee described similar practices for pasta and olive oil.

Checking the products

We heard the same story from several former Santa Maria employees. Still, we wanted to check the story for ourselves. We picked one product - mascarpone cheese - to investigate. We tracked it from the factory in Italy, to the retail shelf in Canada.

First, we called the manufacturer, Galbani, in Milan. They confirmed that every tub of Galbani mascarpone cheese that leaves their plant has a 'best before' date ink jet stamped on the bottom of the tub.

Next, we went shopping at small stores and some big chains in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. For a full year - and as recently as the middle of November - we went looking for samples of the product that no longer had the ink jet stamp.

We found numerous tubs of mascarpone that had been tampered with bearing Santa Maria labels. The ink jet dates were wiped off and new 'best before' date stickers were put in place.

It is not illegal to sell a product after its 'best before' date. It is illegal to change the date the manufacturer puts on the package.

No tampering at Santa Maria warehouse: company

Marketplace met with Eddie Zilli, the executive vice-president of Santa Maria Foods Corporation in Toronto. We showed him examples of date tampering, including samples of Galbani mascarpone cheese. We asked him why the ink stamp on the bottom of the tub was gone - replaced by a sticker.

"Well sometimes what some people in the back are telling us is it comes in with the date smudged, or it's not very legible," Zilli explained. "So we make sure we put a date on it."

We asked Zilli why the new date would be later than the original date - by as much as two months. He suggested that sometimes disgruntled employees are to blame. Here's part of the conversation:

Jim Nunn: Well, sir, we have witnesses who indicated that this was a long-standing practice at your Vancouver plant, it wasn't an isolated incident, that it wasn't being done by disgruntled employees, that they were being ordered to do it by a manager.

Eddie Zilli: Well, that's news to us. Like I said, when we found out, we put a stop to it right away.

Jim Nunn: When did you find out?

Eddie Zilli: I believe it was at the end of the summer. July or August.

Jim Nunn: Of 2000?

Eddie Zilli: That's right.

Jim Nunn: This is a letter to Mr. Rosati, your president, from an employee of your company. It's dated May 1999 and it says, 'While employed I was witness to the recycling of meat and cheese products. This practice in my opinion is extremely illegal and very hazardous to the company as a whole.' So would you now confirm that you were aware of the practice a year earlier?

Eddie Zilli: Well, we make sure the products go out dated properly and we don't encourage redating the product. We're against that. We're federally inspected plants and I mean we have strict rules and regulations we go by and that's the norm in here.