As many as 12 branches of Dutch retailer Albert Heijn have been forced to throw away hundreds of products, after stores' cooling facilities were unable to deal with the ongoing summer heatwave, according to news portal AD.nl.
According to AD.nl, as the refrigeration failed in several stores late last week, the retailer had no option but to throw out dozens of SKUs in the salad, vegetables, meat, dairy and seafood categories, as they could not guarantee the safety of said products.
The move prompted resentment from Twitter users, with one noting that his local store has around 80 metres of empty refrigerated space, "as if you were in a Russian supermarket in the 60s".
Koelcrisis bij appie in Den Haag; geen groenten, maaltijden, vis, vlees, brood, zuivel etc ca 80 meter gekoeld schap leeg; alsof je in een jaren 60 Russische super staat. pic.twitter.com/ZgsGJ1zFpi
— René Brozius (@RBrozius) July 27, 2018
Acknowledging the issue, a spokesperson for Albert Heijn told AD.nl that the anger from customers was "understandable".
The spokesperson added, however, that the discarded food was not going to waste - instead it was being redirected to digesting units that produce electricity and biogas.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
