MasterChef contestant past use-by date
After being sold pastry past its used by date by a show sponsor, a MasterChef contestant has now been eliminated from the show.
- Published by David Knox
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The latest ‘MasterChef controversy’ follows an out of date pastry product sold by one of the show’s sponsors, Coles Supermarkets.
Philip Vakos and Callum Hann bought the product from the supermarket during a challenge screened on Wednesday night, but discovered the pastry was off after they had left the supermarket.
Their dish eventually saw them put up for elimination last night.
Vakos was later cut from the show during a taste test.
Coles spokesman Jim Cooper admitted it had made a mistake in selling food past its use-by date to contestants.
“The pastry from last night’s show did not meet our standards which was very disappointing,” he told the Herald Sun.
“However, this was an isolated incident, and the MasterChef producers and contestants have been thrilled with the quality of the food weve provided for both series one and two of the program.”
Today Tonight reported that checks showed filo pastry does not have a use-by date, rather a best before date. It says if a best before dates expires, the food is probably still safe to eat.
After being cut from the show, Vakos may not be so complimentary about Coles in any upcoming media interviews. The Tassie chef is said to be interested in fronting a TV cooking / travel show.
Coles paid $3m for its sponsorship of the TEN show.
Source: Herald Sun
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22 Responses
yeah yeah so they found a bit of out of date stock at coles, i could walk into any supermarket in the nation and find the same thing if i want too, lets face it we dont live in a perfect world,either do supermarkets, they should of checked the dates like any other sensible person does, im sure a real chef would check these kind of things before buying
Don’t forget it’s a game. A real chef wouldn’t have had the handful of minutes contestants are given to locate ingredients. Either way it didn’t look good for Coles.
not only did coles sell out of date pastry but they alo ran out of the waldorfs for the waldorf salad in tonights masterclass
@ Lewis. Seriously. Its the consumers responsibility to ensure that the monopolistic multinational complies with the trade practices act is it? This was Gold – I could hear the Coles marketing team groan when I watched it.
I’m a big MC fan but I was flabbergasted that the MC editors left that revelation in the final cut! Talk about commercial suicide!
Wow, selling out of date products and having it broadcast on national TV. I wouldnt want to be the manager of that store or the dairy in charge person. Heads could be on the chopping block here.
Coles probably paid the MC judges to get rid of him….sounds pretty dodgy to me.
I’m surprised they got the food in the first place. My local Coles never has enough checkouts open, so I go to Woolies instead.
Philip was a fly-under-the-radar contestant. He was not outstanding in any way and I do not recall him ever winning an invention test or any other sort of challenge. I never really warmed to him – too metrosexual for my tastes. No point blaming the out-of-date pastry. He or Callum should have checked that at the time. I always check use-by dates on anything I get from a freezer in a supermarket, always. The dish they improvised in its place was poor, so they were both rightly in the bottom four.
Coles has quite a large presence on the show (Cooking for a family with stuff from Coles? Judged by Curtis Stone?) so I find it quite amusing that it has backfired.
It’s important to check the used by or best before date, however, the supermarket has a responsibility to ensure that items are not kept on the shelves which are past their used by date.
It could probably be damaging for Coles, however, contestants should be able to work under pressure or unexpected hindrances, if they are to prove themselves worthy of being the master chef.
@ Lewis – do you check the use by date on every single product you ever buy from the shops? I don’t, not my job to know that stuff – it is the supermarkets job to make sure I am buying in-date products.
What if they hadn’t noticed and given some people food poisoning? It would not have been a non-issue then, however unlikely it is.
If I was Woolies I would be using that in every single ad…..”Woolies, where all your produce hasn’t gone off”
All coles employees knew about this “elimination bombshell” was going to happen yesterday as a statement went around all coles around australia.
I agree, Sarah H – Philip should have been able to improvise better. There will always be setbacks during those cooking challenges, whether they be the contestants’ fault or not, and they have to be able to come up with something just as good if not better. Philip and Callum could have done more – they didn’t. Pity though as I did like Philip.
I smell a “wildcard” coming up .. Just like last year…
This embarassing situation could so easily have been avoided, as word on the street is that Woolworths are the ‘fresh food people’.
I think if we read between the lines then we might consider that “past use-by date” is PR talk. Do you think the contestants even looked at the date on the pack, or do you think they may have been faced with something a little more obvious upon opening it?
while the taste test might not be fair, its very exciting to watch, i hope they dont ditch it!
as for phil, yeah, shame he got booted on the end of the filo pastry best before debacle, but as a masterchef contestant, he should have been able to improvise.
This is a non issue. They should have checked the date themselves. Their fault.
And Philip should have guessed pepper instead of white wine. Would have been a much safer bet.
Considering what happened at Coles perhaps MC should invite Philip Vakos back.
IMHO the way MC do the Taste Test isn’t fair either.
Season 1 was all about cooking restaurant standard dishes, but now the shows main premise is starting to contradict itself. Are they trying to cook restaurant style dishes, or homecooked food for kids and families bought from Coles?
I mentioned this here last season when we started seeing Coles logos everywhere, that I knew it would lower the standards of the food and the show. It would be a joke to suggest top chefs buy their meat and veg from Coles, but for $3 million I the network has the final say.
Coles, like other supermarkets and food manufacturers, supplies Foodbank with products that are past the best before date, with these products being passed onto charities for distribution to disadvantaged people. So why is Coles apologising? It is ok for them to supply out of date food to the poor but not to a MasterChef contestant?