# Who can I complain to about stores selling rotted poultry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284 "2016-06-25T01:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/1 "2016-06-25T01:20:36Z")
Colorado as YMMV The fast 4 to 5 months, it has been less than a 50/50 chance that when we buy poultry at the grocery stores that it was actually be _not_ spoiled. We are talking Multiple chains: King Soopers and Safeway and a local store. Multiple stores within those chains Different brands: store-brand chicken, Honeysuckle White turkey, other brand chicken, Tyson (once). When I say it is rotten from the store, I mean a noticable stench within a day or two of getting it home and sometimes it is rotten when we get it home and no it is not sitting in a warm cars for hours or out on the counter all day. Complaining to the store will get us our money back but it has gotten to the point where we simply do not trust buying poultry from any store. So who is best to handle this problem? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/2 "2016-06-25T01:28:10Z")
Maybe contact whichever TV news station in your area that runs the most investigation stories? ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/3 "2016-06-25T01:53:18Z")
Check the temperature of your refrigerator. Stores selling spoiled meat don’t last long. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/4 "2016-06-25T01:57:05Z")
Your local health inspector will be very interested in this. These are usually located in City Hall, or if the problem crosses municipal boundaries, the USDA would likely respond to a complaint. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/5 "2016-06-25T01:59:53Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Check the temperature of your refrigerator. Stores selling spoiled meat don’t last long. I had a problem locally with a supermarket where on three separate occasions, I encountered obviously spoiled meat items for sale. I complained each time, but the problem never seemed to get resolved. I stopped going there after notifying the local Health Inspector. The whole chain went out of business a couple of years later, but the problem lasted a long enough time to pose a serious public health issue. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/6 "2016-06-25T02:02:38Z")
[https://www.colorado.gov/cdphe](https://www.colorado.gov/cdphe) You’re welcome. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/7 "2016-06-25T02:04:09Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Check the temperature of your refrigerator. Stores selling spoiled meat don’t last long. Yeah, and one to two days is pretty much as long as I want to keep chicken in the fridge. I either cook chicken within a day of buying it or I freeze it. Hell, even cooked chicken for me is lucky if it lasts more than two days (I cook chicken breasts every few days for my dog, and by day 3 in the fridge, it starts to get funky.) I would also double check the fridge temp. It seems rather unlikely to me that three different chains and different stores within all these chains are all selling chicken on the verge of going off. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/8 "2016-06-25T07:08:38Z")
Except there have been times that I bought it at a store, get it home, open it to cook almost immediately and it is extremely rotted, not just a little off so it’s not the refigerator which yes I have checked. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/9 "2016-06-25T13:20:11Z")
That’s the County’s gig. Here’s Denver’s site - [http://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/environmental-health/public-health-inspections/food-safety-section.html](http://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/environmental-health/public-health-inspections/food-safety-section.html) > [@](#): > > Denver is the host to approximately 5,000 food businesses. These businesses include restaurants, bars, convenience stores, bakeries, dairies, **grocery stores** , and much more. The Food Safety Program is designed to reduce the incidence of food-borne disease, commonly called food poisoning, through inspection of food businesses, education of those working with food, investigation of complaints, **enforcement of regulations that affect the safety of food** , and education of consumers about food safety. That’s quite a claim you have though, and I suspect they will also think that perhaps it’s something you are not doing right. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/10 "2016-06-25T13:41:16Z")
I’m curious about your definition of ‘extremely rotted’. Are you basing this on a putrid odor from the meat, or the presence of mold, or discoloration, or the meat falling apart, or what? Some raw chicken that I buy smells more strongly than other raw chicken, but I’ve never come across chicken that smelled ‘rotten’ other than scraps that have sat in the garbage can waiting for trash day. By the time it smells that bad it also looks grossly like rotten meat, and even if I couldn’t smell it I wouldn’t buy it based on its nasty appearance: discolored and deliquescent. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/11 "2016-06-25T13:49:46Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Except there have been times that I bought it at a store, get it home, open it to cook almost immediately and it is extremely rotted, not just a little off so it’s not the refigerator which yes I have checked. I would like to know your definition of rotten. My first guess would be that you think “rotten” as soon as the smell is slightly stronger than what you’re comfortable with, while the chicken is in fact perfectly fine. Distant second, I would assume there’s a problem with the way _you_ store/handle chickens. I would have a lot of difficulties believing that several different stores are all selling rotting chickens on a regular basis in your area. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/12 "2016-06-25T14:08:48Z")
As other said you’re (or their) local heath inspector is the proper place to make a complaint. They’ll do a visit, pull some samples, check temps, if the store keeps temp or HAACP logs, they’ll be reviewed. However, the fact that it’s not just one brand or one store or even one chain, makes me think (like others) that it’s you. You’re the only commonality in the formula. If it were only Tyson or only Safeway or all the chicken from one store or even all the chicken from all the stores during one week, I’d buy that, but more than half of the chicken you’ve bought from all those places for the last 5 months, I think it’s you. Either your fridge is set too warm (is your milk going bad?) or for one reason or another it’s tasting/smelling off to you (any new meds? anyone else in the house complaining?). I just can’t think of any other reason why Tyson Chicken from one store would be bad and a few months later Honeysuckle chicken from another unrelated store would be bad and those two things are related. You might try buying it frozen, thawing it (properly) at home and cooking it as soon as it’s thawed. At least that would rule out time and temperature abuse somewhere in the supply chain. Also, check the temp of your fridge, should be under 41. And one other think, if that much chicken is bad, tons of people would be complaining about it, enough that it would be in the news, the health dept would be all over it and there would probably be recalls. It wouldn’t be just you noticing it. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/13 "2016-06-25T14:16:11Z")
Perhaps the local stores are sourcing poultry through a common wholesaler? Time to make a report to the Health Department. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/14 "2016-06-25T14:23:50Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > Perhaps the local stores are sourcing poultry through a common wholesaler? Time to make a report to the Health Department. If it was that pervasive a problem, an investigation in the area would already be underway and public warnings issued. > [@clairobscur](#): > > I would like to know your definition of rotten. My first guess would be that you think “rotten” as soon as the smell is slightly stronger than what you’re comfortable with, while the chicken is in fact perfectly fine. > > Distant second, I would assume there’s a problem with the way _you_ store/handle chickens. > > I would have a lot of difficulties believing that several different stores are all selling rotting chickens on a regular basis in your area. Yup. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/15 "2016-06-25T14:28:00Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > Perhaps the local stores are sourcing poultry through a common wholesaler? Time to make a report to the Health Department. I thought about that, but, again it would have been noticed by more than just the OP. Also a lot (not all) of chicken that comes into big grocery stores arrives frozen ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/16 "2016-06-25T16:02:57Z")
Your fowl has gone foul? ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/17 "2016-06-25T18:29:08Z")
Here’s a couple of ways that [pretty](http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Frozen-chicken-horror-20101219-2)[nasty](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/22/foodanddrink) chicken got into the supply chain in the UK and South Africa. Maybe the OP has a good nose for this kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-can-i-complain-to-about-stores-selling-rotted-poultry/758284/18 "2016-06-25T19:33:47Z")
I would never leave an uncooked chicken in the fridge for more than 1-2 days. Poultry has significant issues re “fecal soups” etc that are encountered in processing. Uncooked chicken brought home needs to be washed and cooked ASAP. [http://www.pcrm.org/health/reports/the-five-worst-contaminants-in-chicken-products](http://www.pcrm.org/health/reports/the-five-worst-contaminants-in-chicken-products)