Selling rotten meat with relabeled use-by dates

On the 9th of August, we bought 2kg of skinless chicken breast fillets from Woolworths Glen Villages with a use-by and home freeze by date of the same day.

When I opened the pack it was filled with little plastic bags containing about two fillets each. The first thing I noticed was the rotting smell. Secondly, I noticed the white and green discoloration of the meat.

Each individual bag had a production date of 03/07/2021 on them and an if frozen use by date of 03/08/2021. This date was a week before we bought it in the store.

This means that it was not sold before the sell by date the first time and was sent back to the distribution centres were it was just relabeled and sent back to stores.

I went back to the store and told the manager of this and they were shocked that they received stock like this. She promised me that they will follow this up and let me know what happens.

I got an email on the 20th of August saying: "The breast fillets will have a slight off, plastic smell when it is opened. This is due to fillets being sealed in a vacuum. When a vacuum is pulled, there is no residual air in the pack and no transfer of air and or oxygen through the film, like with the stretch film overwrap which is permeable. The vacuum packaging material is non-permeable, therefore when the pack is opened, the vacuum pack smell and an off odour is detected. You should leave the open pack for about 4 minutes before cooking. The smell will dissipate."

They didn't address any of the misinformation or very obvious rotten meat that they were trying to sell as fresh.