On ordinary Saturdays Lagos families hunt for bargains. They find ketchup at a price that looks too good to refuse. They do not expect a family kitchen to turn into an emergency ward. Yet that is exactly what happened when Daniel Olanrewaju’s weekend treat for his children became a health scare after the family used a bottle of ketchup bought from a supermarket promo shelf that had expired three weeks earlier.
That single bottle is not an anomaly. It is the thread that, when tugged, unravels a pattern of deliberate retail deception playing out across Lagos.
This investigation draws on undercover visits to eight supermarkets across the metropolis and a careful review of regulatory guidance and law.
It shows how expired or near-expiry stock is being quietly shifted to promotional racks, discounted dramatically and offered to shoppers without proper labelling or quarantine.
It shows a regulatory ecosystem that sometimes reacts but rarely prevents. And it shows the human cost, from stomach cramps to fear and loss of trust in formal retail.
What our undercover probe found
Between 25 August and 4 September 2025 an Atlantic Post correspondent, posing as a shopper, visited supermarkets in Lekki, Ogba, Ishaga, Ijegun, Abule-Egba and other parts of Lagos. The pattern was unmistakable. Premium items were slashed to rock-bottom prices and placed on “promo” or “flash sale” displays. Many of the same products were either days away from expiry or already past their printed expiry dates.
In one Lekki outlet a premium coffee that had retailed for N9,800 was reduced to N500 although the batch was already out of date.
In another store multiple items including ketchup, canned milk and powdered drinks were discovered to bear expired dates stretching back weeks.
Shoppers recounted near identical experiences. Temitope Ogunsanya bought two cans of Pringles on a buy-one-get-one-50 per cent promo only to discover later that the unopened can had an expiry date more than a month earlier.
Daniel Olanrewaju’s three children fell ill after eating food laced with an expired ketchup. These are not isolated anecdotes. They track with the on-the-ground evidence gathered during our visits and with images published by PUNCH Healthwise showing expired products still on display.
The playbook retailers use
The tactic is simple and cynical. As products near their sell-by dates store managers relegate them to promo shelves, slap a discount sticker over a label or stack them beside loud sale signage so shoppers assume a bargain rather than a hazard.
In some cases the printed day of expiry is missing and only the month and year remain, leaving shoppers unable to make an informed decision at the point of purchase.
An anonymous sales representative told investigators that staff are instructed to move near-expiry items to promotions rather than dispose of them, and that price stickers are sometimes placed over expiry information.
This tactic exploits both human psychology and economic pressure. In a climate of inflation and shrinking purchasing power customers hunt for perceived value and often do not check expiry dates, especially in busy stores. Retailers exploit that inattention to clear inventory that otherwise would be lost or written off.
The law and the gaps
Nigeria’s legal framework on the sale of expired and unwholesome processed food is unambiguous. The Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act Cap C.34 LFN 2004 criminalises the sale and distribution of counterfeit, adulterated or expired processed foods and provides for fines and imprisonment for offenders.
The Act empowers federal and state task forces to seize goods and prosecute offenders.
NAFDAC has a set of enforceable guidelines for handling, storage, recall and disposal of unwholesome and expired products.
Those rules require establishments handling regulated products to demarcate and quarantine expired stock, label it conspicuously “Not for Sale”, and to follow prescribed recall and disposal procedures. In short, expired goods should never be sold or disguised as bargains.
So why are expired goods still on sale? Part of the explanation lies in enforcement capacity and part in the incentives of retail management.
NAFDAC enforcement operates with many successes but cannot physically monitor every shelf in every store 24/7.
Lagos state agencies have in recent months carried out enforcement operations, sealing a number of outlets for selling expired goods.
But closure and sanction after the fact does not prevent the daily sale of shelf by shelf, aisle by aisle, from continuing when oversight is intermittent.
Health risks and expert analysis
Medical and food safety experts stress that expiry dates are not mere marketing details. They indicate when a product should be consumed by to guarantee safety and nutritional quality.
Consuming expired food increases risk of bacterial growth, toxin formation and nutrient deterioration. Children, pregnant women, the elderly and the immunocompromised face the greatest risk. Symptoms range from mild nausea and diarrhoea to severe food poisoning and, in rare cases, life-threatening complications.
A food quality assurance professional interviewed in the course of this investigation emphasised that expiry dates are derived from stability testing and are sensitive to storage, packaging and transport conditions.
Products can fail before their printed expiry if storage conditions are poor. But that technical nuance does not absolve sellers from the duty to quarantine and properly label such stock or to remove it entirely. The law and the guidelines are clear.
Who is profiting and who is losing
From a business intelligence perspective the motive is profit preservation. Retail margins on fast moving consumer goods are thin.
A manager faced with a pallet of unsold stock that will soon be worthless has two choices. Call headquarters and take the loss, or discount and hope to recoup value.
The promo shelf becomes a solution that protects margins. But this accounting practice offloads health risk onto consumers and violates both regulation and basic ethics.
The loss is borne by consumers in dollars and naira and in trust. Families who once regarded modern supermarkets as safer alternatives to informal markets now feel betrayed.
Mr Ogunsanya said he now double checks expiry dates and refuses promo items that feel like “too good to be true”. That erosion of trust has long term consequences for retail brands and for the formalisation of food distribution in Nigeria.
Regulatory responses and their limits
NAFDAC’s press account to investigators was that the agency depends on hard evidence to take enforcement action.
The agency’s media consultant acknowledged the gravity of the findings, requested evidence and said NAFDAC seizes and destroys expired goods once verified. This procedural posture is lawful but slow. In the meantime shoppers continue to buy.
Lagos State agencies have not been idle. The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency and other enforcement arms disclosed earlier in the year that numerous supermarkets had been shut or fined after enforcement operations.
Reports in May 2025 stated that at least 35 supermarkets had been shut between January and April for selling expired products and that fines and refunds had been ordered in some cases.
That clampdown demonstrates that state enforcement can be effective but also that the problem persists and resurfaces.
Retailers respond
When confronted some outlets admitted error and promised corrective action. One director of Rennie Supermarket apologised and said the presence of an expired coffee was a breach of standard procedure and subject to internal investigation.
So Rite Supermarket promised disciplinary action and an audit. Others either did not respond or were unreachable. A director’s apology is a start. Real reform will mean new systems, stronger oversight and visible public disclosures of corrective action.
The hidden accounting that endangers public health
The commercial calculus behind this problem is worth spelling out. Food companies and distributors operate on just-in-time stock rotations. When consumer spend slows and turnover drops the risk of dead stock rises.
Supermarkets that value quarterly profit and avoid writedowns will pressure front-line staff to clear inventory. That pressure can morph into concealment, whether by placing stickers over dates or by failing to demarcate expired goods.
Middlemen in the supply chain also play a role. Food distribution in Lagos is complex and partly informal. When supply chains fray, so does traceability.
Consumer protection failings
Consumer law in Nigeria makes selling expired and unwholesome processed food an offence. Yet enforcement often lands on small vendors while large chains escape persistent scrutiny.
Legal experts note that the law allows for prosecution and imprisonment and for corporate liability, yet an enforcement gap remains between statute and street.
The headline closures in May showed the state can act. But sporadic action without institutionalised random audits and public reporting will leave consumers exposed.
Practical checks for shoppers
- Always check the expiry date and the printed day if present. If only a month and year are printed, treat the product with caution.
- Avoid items on promo racks that appear unusually cheap for their category. Compare the lot number and the batch with the same product on a different shelf.
- When in doubt ask a manager for verification and for a signature noting the batch number and expiry. Take a photo. Evidence matters when reporting.
- Keep receipts and note where you bought the item. If you or a family member falls ill, seek medical care and preserve the product for testing and reporting.
- Report directly to NAFDAC and the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency with evidence. NAFDAC guidance explains how recalls and seizures are handled.
What regulators must do now
- Randomised Daily Inspections. Regulatory teams must conduct unannounced inspections focused on promotional displays and clearance shelves where the evidence shows expired items congregate.
- Public Reporting. Enforcement actions, fines and seizures should be published centrally and promptly. Consumers deserve transparency.
- Electronic Traceability. Encourage or compel retailers to adopt simple digital stock rotation logs that show batch numbers and expiry reconciled daily. Low cost digital tools exist for retailers to manage first-in, first-out.
- Whistleblower Protections. Staff who report that managers are hiding expired products must be protected and incentivised. Several store employees told investigators that fear of losing their jobs silences them. That must end.
Business reforms needed
For retail chains the fix requires change to incentive structures. Writedowns should be normalised and managed in a transparent accounting framework so branch managers are not rewarded for clearing bad stock at the expense of public safety.
Supplier agreements must include mandatory buy-back or credit for near-expiry consignments. Procurement teams must be audited on turnover latency and expiry risk. Ultimately corporate governance must include consumer safety metrics on executive scorecards.
A test of institutions and of trust
This is a crisis that tests three institutions simultaneously. It tests retail governance and whether profit will be allowed to trump public safety. It tests regulatory reach and whether NAFDAC and state agencies can move beyond episodic enforcement to systematic prevention. And it tests public trust in formalised food distribution.
When shoppers lose faith in supermarkets they either revert to informal markets, which may have their own safety problems, or they reduce food choices and consume less nutritious diets.
The story of Daniel Olanrewaju and Temitope Ogunsanya is therefore emblematic. It is not just a personal affront. It is a symptom of fractured oversight and of corporate decisions that externalise risk onto consumers.
A bottle of ketchup should not be a health hazard. Nor should a savings tag be a warning label.
What we found and what we recommend in short
Findings
• Expired and near-expiry items were found across multiple supermarkets in Lagos on promo shelves.
• Retail practice sometimes obscures expiry dates with price stickers or vague labelling.
• NAFDAC guidelines require quarantine and conspicuous labelling of unwholesome products but enforcement is logistically constrained.
• Legal penalties exist under Cap C.34 but enforcement unevenly targets small vendors while large retailers often receive lesser sanctions.
Recommendations
• Immediate random inspections by NAFDAC and Lagos enforcement units focused on promotional displays.
• Mandatory public disclosure of enforcement actions and seizure lists.
• Retailers must adopt electronic stock rotation, supplier buy-back clauses, and transparent writedown policies.
• Legal pursuit of corporate accountability where evidence shows deliberate concealment. Cap C.34 provides the avenue.
Final word
A supermarket should be a place of predictable safety not a site of covert risk. Lagos shoppers are paying with their health and their trust for a system that sometimes values margin over safety.
The law exists and the guidelines are clear. What remains is the will and the systems to enforce them reliably and transparently.
If regulators, retailers and civil society do not act swiftly the next story will be far worse than a family with a bad weekend. It will be a public health emergency.
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