Aldi in Colonie forced to discard 295 pounds of products, 'critical ...

A complaint about improper food storage led the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets to inspect the Aldi grocery store in Colonie. What that inspector found was a critical deficiency and hundreds of pounds of food had to be thrown out.

It all started when a Facebook post from April 4 gained a lot of attention. It currently has over 300 comments and more than 1,000 shares. “Don’t buy meat, milk cheese anything in the cooler areas,” the post said. The post was published by a person who claims to work at Aldi.

The post also claims perishable food was left out in a backroom all night.

13Investigates decided to look into this.

The New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets said they received a complaint about the Aldi store on Central Ave. on April 4 – the same day the Facebook post was made. 

An inspector with the Division of Food Safety and Inspection did a full sanitary inspection and found a “critical deficiency at the time of inspection.” 

The Department of Ag and Markets said 295 pounds of products were seized and destroyed. The inspector reviewed the deficiencies and proper food storage protocol with the firm’s management.

Aldi’s corporate office wrote in a statement:

“Aldi has strict protocols in place to ensure quality products are available to our customers. We are aware of the inspection that occurred at our Central Avenue store and can confirm the store took appropriate steps to prepare any impacted products for disposal before the inspection.”

A re-inspection of this Aldi store is to come at a later date, not disclosed to 13Investigates.