Images have emerged of Coles supermarket aisles full of discarded products deemed unsafe following major power cuts in Victoria.
About 30 stores across the state were affected by the outages on Tuesday during “catastrophic” storms that killed a dairy farmer and cut power to more than 500,000 homes.
Coles customers have since discovered piles of dairy, meat and frozen products being thrown away as they may have been ‘compromised’ after fridges and freezers lost power during Victoria’s wild weather.
A customer noticed the frozen food aisle at the store in Middle Camberwell, in Melbourne’s east, blocked off by trolleys as the contents of the fridges were piled on the floor.
Another customer at another Coles found a large waste bin filled with unopened bottles of milk.
Shoppers at Coles in Victoria are shocked to see aisles full of discarded frozen food (pictured) after wild storms devastated the state and caused power outages on Tuesday
The image of the suburban supermarket was posted by the customer Redditas well as another photo of a warning sign next to the closed aisle.
The sign urged customers not to purchase “dairy or frozen products as their quality may be compromised due to a recent power outage.”
While some Reddit users took aim at the supermarket giant for offloading so much stock, many supported the decision to ‘protect their customers’.
“Every effort was made to save as much stock as possible… of the stores that lost hundreds of thousands of shares, not a single person in that process was excited to just throw it in the trash,” one user wrote. .
“It was a miserable day for cold chain workers around Victoria. They don’t just waste things for funzies, but also to protect people’s health.’
Another user said that while they are not supporting Coles following the recent price increases, they admitted that ‘this was a bizarre incident and they are protecting consumer health’.
The image of a ‘container full of milk’ from another Victorian store caught the attention of a user who claimed to work at another supermarket where staff were forced to ‘throw away over $100,000 worth of stock’.
“Absolutely heartbreaking, both to throw away so much food and to see our hard work go to waste,” the user wrote.
“The worst part was having to tell every customer we had nothing for them to eat for dinner.”
A customer at another Coles store in Victoria took a photo of a bin filled with unopened bottles of milk (pictured) after freezers and fridges lost power following the severe storms
A Coles spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that while around 30 stores in Victoria had lost power, they had all now reopened.
“All of our stores have now reopened and our team is working hard today to restock our shelves so we can continue to serve the community,” the spokesperson said.
‘While most of our stores were back online quickly, some of our stores were without power for longer, which meant some food had to be thrown away.
‘At Coles, food safety is paramount – and unfortunately the food we throw away is unsafe for sale or donation to food rescue charities.’
Rival supermarket Woolworths was also hit hard by the wild storms, with a similar number of stores losing power on Tuesday.
Four Woolworths stores are operating with generators, while stores in the worst-affected areas, Gippsland and Dandenong, are ‘able to trade with limited opening hours’.
‘It is expected that we will have to throw away a number of chilled products, including dairy, poultry, milk and frozen products. This is in accordance with strict food safety protocols,” a spokesperson said.
“We would like to thank the local energy authorities for quickly reconnecting power in areas where it was out, and also to our customers for their continued patience as our store teams work hard to meet all community needs.”