A Misunderstanding Over Chicken Wings

What at first appeared to be a case of deliberately selling expired food turned out to be something else entirely.

Vísir reports that a woman in Reykjanes recently tucked into a bucket of Holta chicken wings, only to feel sick to her stomach before she was halfway through it (about 6 to 8 wings).

On closer inspection of the bucket’s label, which bears the expiration date, she discovered that there was another label underneath it. Peeling the top label back, a far earlier expiration date was revealed, giving the appearance that someone had pasted a new label over a bucket of expired chicken wings.

Vísir contacted Holta Director of Sales and Marketing Ragnar Hjörleifsson for a response. He explained that there is a perfectly reasonable reason for the double labeling.

Ragnar says that too many buckets had been labeled for the available chicken wings at the time. These buckets were set aside, and when a new batch of wings were cooked, new labels were put over the old ones.

“This was a mistake on our part,” Ragnar told reporters. “In an effort to save a little money, employees took the liberty of pasting new labels over the old ones. We apologise for this. Our employees did this in good faith.”

He emphasised furthermore that the company does not re-use old buckets for new chicken wings.