Walmart under fire after video emerges showing thousands of dollars in food being discarded

CELINA, OHIO — In the aftermath of two tornadoes that struck Mercer County in Ohio, a Celina Walmart has come under fire after an Ohio resident posted a live Facebook video showing Walmart employees in the process of disposing thousands of dollars of groceries. (See video below.)

The Walmart has said the groceries became spoiled after one of the tornadoes caused their Celina store lose power for about 14 hours.

Gary Joe Ahrns of Ohio posted the now viral video Nov. 6; the day after two EF2 tornadoes, with winds reported over 130 miles an hour, swept a path of destruction throughout the area and injured at least eight people.

In the nearly seven minute long video, which has been viewed over one million times and re-shared more than forty thousand times, Ahrns lamented finding dozens of shopping carts and numerous large, industrial trash bins full of discarded food, such as milk, cheese, meat, canned goods, butter and other food items.

The video caused an immediate backlash of anger and frustration towards the Walmart corporation, which was quick to respond to thousands of angry Facebook comments and calls to area stores to explain that the discarded food had been deemed as unsafe to eat due to the store having lost power for a prolonged period.

The powerful tornado and storm caused more than 1,000 people in Celina and Western Ohio to lose power, including many businesses and a state of emergency was declared in several areas, including Celina, where the Walmart store is located.

Power officials later confirmed that the Walmart store was among many other area businesses that were heavily affected by power loss and storm damage.

In a post responding to Ahrns’ video, Walmart officials explained, “We have fielded a number of calls regarding a video circulating on Facebook showing our associates throwing out food, and we wanted our customers and community to understand the situation. Unfortunately, due to a tornado that affected our store in Celina, Ohio on November 5, the food being disposed of was unsafe for consumption after the store lost power for 14 hours. Per internal and health department policies, we followed proper procedures by disposing of the food.”

While many who commented Ahrns’ video angrily lambasted Walmart’s decision to dispose of the food following the 14 hour power loss, both Walmart and the Mercer County Ohio Health District say the food was disposed of in accordance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and county health department’s guidelines for handling potentially spoiled food.

In spite of Walmart’s reassurances and answering countless people’s angry comments, many around the nation have questioned if any or all of the food could have been safely distributed and did not need to be disposed of.

However, the Mercer County Ohio Health District later agreed with and supported Walmart’s decision to discard the food, saying, “after 4 hours above 41 degrees” the food items were unsafe for anyone to consume, which was also why the potentially spoiled food could not be donated as opposed to simply throwing out the groceries.

Additionally, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety guidelines, many canned foods labeled “Keep Refrigerated” should be disposed of if a power loss results in temperatures above 40 degrees lasts for more than two hours.

 

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Trevor Montgomery, who recently moved from Riverside County to Shasta County, runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for Riverside County based newspapers Valley News, The Valley Chronicle and Anza Valley Outlook as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.