Dateline NBC, after interviewing health inspectors and touring dozens of supermarkets all over the country,
compiled a list of the 10 least hygienic supermarkets in the country. From expired milk and deli meats to lack of
hot water in employee bathrooms, there were many violations that were not immediately obvious to the customer's eyes,
but the hidden cameras caught blatantly unhygienic practices and major health and sanitation violations, like dead
insects in food products. After analyzing the data from inspections in 2005 of 1,000 stores in 27 states from the each
of the top ten grocery chains, the list was final. From fewest violations to most, the least sanitary supermarket
chains are:
- Food Lion
- Wal-Mart
- Save-a-Lot
- Costco
- Sam's Club
- Wynn-Dixie
- Kroger
- Publix
- Albertsons
- Safeway
According to the company responses received by Dateline, all the companies are vowing to improve in every area where a critical violation was received. They emphasize that customers who see a violation should report it to the store manager immediately so the problem can be dealt with.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-23-2006 @ 11:40AM
Tony said...
Here in Chicago the 2 major supermarket chains are Dominick's and Jewel who are owned by Safeway & Albertsons. I can't remember which is which though. How depressing. At least there's Whole Foods, produce shops, and butchers.
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1-23-2006 @ 10:36PM
transiit said...
I rely on my county government's publically accessible database of health inspections.
http://foodinspections.ocgov.com/foodinspections/
I also use it as a restaurant review guide.
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1-31-2006 @ 1:27PM
yelena said...
first to answer comment number one albertson's is the chain that owns the jewel stores.
secondly as a former courtesy clerk at albertson's i really must say that i am shocked that they are so far down on the list. as part of my job i had to make sure that the restrooms were clean and in proper working order and that there were no spills or misses in any of the aisles. also as of recently albertson's has really made the safety of it's customers and the cleanliness of it's stores a mojor priority assigning a single person to monitor the cleaning and upkeep of the store each day, instead of splitting up the tasks to different people in which case people tend to get lazy and figure that someone else will clean it later. my bet is that if they do this study again a year from now the results would be quite different.
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