Related articles:

Bashas': Union is lying on baby food

Other articles by Howard Fischer:

Failed legislative bill leaves public-financed campaigns in doubtBurns: Brewer bungling her job House approves boost in funding for those seeking office next year 3 recommended to Brewer to fill seat on high court AZ can enact own greenhouse gas regsRecession reins in sprawl Pet bills aplenty pouring forth from Legislature Brewer wants budget right away, but not those other, lesser bills Flat-tax plan could hit walletsRepeal of ban on sparklers nears final OK

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps

PHOENIX — House Demo-crats are crafting legislation to make it illegal to sell infant formula in Arizona past its "use by" date.

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has concluded formula sold after that date may not contain the nutrient levels required by federal law. The result, she said, could be mothers are inadvertently giving their children inadequate nourishment.

Sinema conceded she and her Democratic colleagues had not even considered the issue until it was raised by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which is trying to unionize the Bashas' grocery-store chain. Bashas' also includes Food City and AJ's markets.

Union reps say understaffing at those stores led to large quantities of outdated formula on shelves.

Sinema and other Democratic supporters of the plan said, however, the issue transcends union organizing, as the law would apply to all stores in Arizona.

Bashas' President Mike Proulx denied his stores sell outdated items. He said this legislation is simply "a smear campaign" by Sinema and other lawmakers and their union allies to discredit the stores because its employees have so far refused to join a union.

"Sinema — I'm going to try to be nice and kind here — has a reputation it appears to be on her own political agenda to promote herself," he said. "And so she's riding any hot topic that comes by." Proulx also called the legislation unnecessary, saying the sale of these products already is regulated by the state Department of Weights and Measures and the state Department of Health Services.

That is at least partly true.

Steve Meissner, spokesman for Weights and Measures, said his agency has no authority over sell dates.

Karen Sell, director of the Women, Infants and Children program of the Department of Health Services, said her agency does have contracts with all retailers about how baby formula is sold. She said that includes ensuring it is, in fact, sold by the "use by" date.

Sell said that at the very least, her agency can force retailers to take outdated items off the shelves. The ultimate penalty for repeat violators is the loss of the right to accept WIC vouchers — federal checks that pregnant women and new mothers can use to purchase formula, as well as items from cereal and juice to milk and fresh vegetables.

Sell said she can only check a representative sample of all retailers in the state on an annual basis. But Sell said she found no outdated formula on the shelves of any Bashas' store.

Sinema said only stores in the Bashas' chain were checked — and only by union representatives.

"That's not my job," she said. "I'm a legislator."

Union representatives were at Thursday's press conference to hand out copies of its study of the Bashas' chain. Union spokeswoman Katy Giglio said Fry's and Safeway stores — both unionized — were not checked because the UFCW got no complaints from its members there.

But Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe, said the legislation transcends the union's fight with Bashas'.

"It really doesn't matter to me which stores it's happening at," he said.

"What matters is that it has happened, it's been brought to our attention that it's happened," Schapira continued. "And it's also been brought to our attention that there's no law prohibiting it."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows manufacturers to choose their own "use by" dates, based on their own analysis of how long the product will have the stated nutritional value. The agency also said in 1999 that items sold past the "use by" date "would be adulterated and subject to seizure."