The truth about dollar stores and expired food

Would you buy food at the dollar store? Many people are hesitant because they believe these cost-conscious outlets sell items that are long past their best-before dates. But is it really true? To find out, we visited six Toronto dollar stores and examined 129 pre-packaged food items.

Turns out 97% of the items we surveyed were fresh. At the big chains, Dollarama and the Great Canadian Dollar Store, we didn’t find a single item that was past its best-before date.

However, the independent stores didn’t fare so well. We found four out-of-date items, principally cake and bread mixes that were sitting on store shelves for an average of 86 days past the best-before date. Keep in mind that consuming an item past its best-before date is not necessarily a food safety concern: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says you can buy and eat foods after the best-before date has passed, but the food may lose some of its freshness and flavour, or the texture may have changed.

While it may not be possible to find all the items on your grocery list in a dollar store, enough deals can be found to make the trip worthwhile. Limiting your food purchases to the larger dollar store chains may be your best bet, as many now carry major brands with the same quality as what you’ll find at the grocery store.

Great Canadian Dollar Store (2575 Danforth Ave.)

Viva Dollar Bazaar (1126 Bloor St. W.)

Dollar Wise (1901 Yonge St.)

Dollarama (900 Dufferin St.)