Tauranga’s Woolworths Fraser Cove bins food under safety rules after fridge fault

Woolworths Fraser Cove had to throw out bags of food after a fridge-freezer malfunction. Photo / Sandra Conchie

Woolworths says it had to throw out chilled food after a chiller malfunction, though one shopper says he would have “happily taken everything”.

The shopper, who did not want to be named, said he went to Woolworths Fraser Cove about 10.30am yesterday to buy yoghurt for his toddler.

He was “disgusted” to see loads of chiller food being bagged up to be dumped - “even the ice blocks”.

While the father acknowledged some things might need to be thrown out, he believed many of the items would still be okay.

“I would have happily taken everything and I know many other people would feel the same,” he said.

“There are so many people struggling at the moment. It was just crazy to see.”

When the Bay of Plenty Times visited the store soon after, signs were taped to fridge-freezers explaining the situation.

“Due to a mechanical failure, we are not able to sell these products. We would like to apologise for the inconvenience.”

Some compartments were empty, but others still had food such as crumbed chicken lasagne toppas, schnitzel, BBQ meat patties, pork loin products and calamari rings.

The store manager directed the Bay of Plenty Times’ inquiries to Woolworths NZ’s head office.

A spokesperson responded on Friday morning, saying the mechanical failure was still being investigated.

“When the store manager arrived to open the store, he found a fault with the refrigeration unit/freezers.

“At this stage it is unclear how long they had not been working.”

Woolworths declined to reveal how much food was affected or the financial losses because this was “commercially sensitive”.

In response to the shopper’s comments, the spokesperson said safety was “absolutely” a top priority for Woolworths and in this case, the food could not be salvaged or donated.

“The requirements of the MPI [Ministry of Primary Industries] Template Food Control Plan that we adhere to dictate that chilled products that have been above 5 degrees for more than four hours must be disposed of.”

The spokesperson said food rescue was “extremely important” to Woolworths, which partnered in Tauranga with Good Neighbour.

“We want to see safe, edible surplus food go to people, not landfill, and all our stores have at least one food rescue partner.”

Nationwide, 30 food rescue partners would receive more than $1 million in food rescue grants from Woolworths this financial year.

Good Neighbour Tauranga was allocated $32,000 in the most recent round of grants.

“In our 2025 financial year, we donated over 4000 tonnes of food across New Zealand, equivalent to more than 8 million meals worth over $18 million.”

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She covers mainly police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.