The expiry date that isn’t.
Many commercially packed items in India come with expiry (or best before) dates these days which many of us look for assiduously. However, for some products, these dates don’t hold water at all.
Many dry food (grains, lentils, flours, snacks, spices) packages look inflated – in fact, if you press too hard, the packet would pop and open up. Such packaging usually means the product has been factory sealed and often flushed with nitrogen. This process removes oxygen from the packaging, a critical step particularly for products like chips to preserve freshness and flavour and to prevent oxidizing of the product (which causes the rancid smell in foods with oil). Oxygen, like moisture, causes chemical changes to products altering the original/intended taste.
The puffy packaging also reduces impact – the balloon like packet acts as a cushion, thereby producing another key benefit, reducing crumbling (chips), breakage (nuts) etc.
Most retail stores though (as seen in Chennai), methodically puncture these sealed packages using a pin or safety pin before stacking on the shelves. Yes, even the Nilgiris, Waitrose, Reliance, More, Spencer’s and other large brand name stores. The product brand does not matter – as of now, chips packets are not punctured (thank goodness), but lentils, grains and flours almost always are. If you have wondered why you get that slight residue of flour in your hand every time you pick up a packet, this is the reason.
The small store spaces in India mean that every inch is made to go the extra mile – most stores have little by way of back-end store rooms. The supermarket shelves ARE the entire stock. Poking the packet means much more product can be stacked on the shelves, allowing for higher quantities to be ordered which, in turn, gives stores a greater margin.
The puncturing means that manufacturers’ packaging strategies have all but been nullified. The hole means the product is no longer sterile, can (and will) let in air and potentially insects, moisture, dirt etc. into the product. So, now, all bets are off – the product, in all likelihood, has an expiry date much earlier that what is printed. If you are like me, you are probably wondering why insect infestation has increased in your pantry, even as elders of the family state how this never happened before. Now you know.
I requested the managers of the usual stores I patronize to stop puncturing. One store owner assured me that he would not do it to urad dhal (matpe beans) alone (whose freshness is particularly important for good idlis) but HAD to do it to others. Another decided not to respond. This is endemic and done in the open (I have seen shopgirls sit on the floor poking packets upon packets of product), but are the manufacturers aware? I wonder.
