That essentially is the case. Grocery stores make a best effort to remove expired foods but you can often find expired food on the shelf in the US.

Go make a stink about it at the customer service desk and they will probably say exactly that.

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tomcatfish 11 hours ago | parent [-]

They… will not say that, because they get a large fine if you report them. Every store I've been too has been deeply apologetic when this has happened (a small handful of times in my entire life).

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kube-system 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In a lot of the US it is entirely legal to sell expired food. Near me there are grocery stores that specialize in “close to expiration” food, for a discount.

	▲	NekkoDroid an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Rewe in germany also has some things discounted when close to expiration as well, but it has a fat red/white label on it indicating it (usually meat products)

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joecool1029 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Outside of a few states and a few product types (baby formula), they won't be fined. But yes, customer service usually swaps it out.