Coles’ expired pastry causes MasterChef outrage
Two contestants on Australian reality cooking show MasterChef are up for elimination after last night having to completely scrap one of their dishes after discovering the filo pastry bought from Coles was past its use-by date.
Contestants Philip Vakos and Callum Hann found themselves in a race against the clock when they discovered the frozen filo pastry was expired after they had left the supermarket. Instead of making the traditional Greek pie, spanakopita, they compromised by using what they had left to make a spinach and cheese fritatta.
But the judges were not impressed and the pair was consequently put up for elimination as their fritatta came up in the bottom two dishes.
Fans on the MasterChef online forums have flooded threads with similar stories of purchasing expired goods and criticise Coles for poor management. Many fans also question why Channel Ten producers did not edit out the fault and protect the sponsor. Coles is one of MasterChef’s biggest sponsors and reportedly pays up to $A3 million in sponsorship and provides all food in the show.
According to Herald Sun, Coles spokesman Jim Cooper said it was not for him to comment on whether the pastry incident should have had an impact on the competition itself but admitted that it had made a mistake in selling food past its use-by date to contestants.
“We take great care to ensure the products on our shelves are of the highest quality,” he said.
“The pastry from last night’s show did not meet our standards which was very disappointing.
“However, this was an isolated incident, and the MasterChef producers and contestants have been thrilled with the quality of the food we’ve provided for both series one and two of the program.”
The issue , as we professionals all know, is not what the use by date was ( an advisory quality yardstick) but did the pastry perform. In a world of scarce and diminishing resources as a populace we are , in the developed world, are so wasteful. I only wish that the great unwashed out there in consumer land would look to the real issue, use common sense and not be driven by half truths cant and spin. In the scheme of things does it really matter that frozen pastry was after its (advisory) shelf life … I could go on but will call it quits there.
Fact is Coles made a mistake. IMO, an item that has passed its use-by date is deemed not fit quality-wise and the customers have the right to ask for a refund. In Masterchef’s case, they didn’t have time to get a replacement and that ultimately cost one of the contestants a spot on the show.