by Allen Williams
Recently I had to pick up some items for a luncheon gathering on Sunday
May 31st. The meal plan called for baked lasagna and Caesar salad with
others of us bringing various side dishes and culinary accoutrements.
We each volunteered to bring various items from a prepared list for our
luncheon. I chose dessert and offered to bring several kinds. I selected
baked goods because I have a bit of experience in selecting tasty
examples of the pie variety.
It was Thursday May 28th and I was out running errands anyway so I
thought it would be a good time to pick up my choices since I was in the
vicinity anyway.
I stopped by Price Choppers at 87th and Antioch to pick up several pies for the occasion, one cherry and one apple.
Arriving at the bakery department there was quite a selection of baked
goods but after a bit I selected what I thought were outstanding
examples of both pastries. After paying for the items i checked out and
went home. I didn't refrigerate the two items because they were left in
their respective sealed packages.
Besides I remember my grandmother baking pies and putting them in a pie
safe sometimes for well over a month in the summer. Fruit pies and
canned jellies are not subject to bacteria spoilage as in the case of
raw fruit. As long as they are stored in a dust free environment, they
are fine. Dust causes poisonous growths in uncovered jams and jellies.
The pies were loaded into my automobile and I left early Sunday morning
for the luncheon arriving at my destination in about two hours. S I
brought them into our gathering all seemed well. Somewhere after one we
finally got to dessert. I asked to hjave a piece of the cherry pie I
brought. One of the young ladies sliced the pie and I removed a piece.
One of the ladies next to me started to get a piece when she asked what
was this dark object next to the piece I had just gotten. Examining it a
bit closer, it looked to be mold.
We quickly checked the apple pie and it too was showing small spots of
green mold. I was both surprised and embarrassed because I had never seen
pie that was sealed grow mold. See the attached photos of the two pies.
It occurred to me that Price Chopper's bakery was not handling their
product very carefully because mold doesn't grow overnight so these pies
were contaminated before they were ever packaged.
When I returned to the Overland Park location where I purchased them and
told the bakery what I found,they made no effort to even apologize. The woman
behind the counter just blabbed some meaningless nonsense and made no
offer to refund my purchase price.
I informed them that I would not purchase any further baked goods at this store in the future.
Here is what I saw:.
The Cherry Pie (large dark spot adjacent to the 'cherry sticker')
The Apple Pie (showing green mold spots in center)
