their expiry dates -- and covering it up when a customer complained.

In a letter to The Royal Gazette , Mr. Paul Rowlerson of Gibbs Hill Road in Southampton claims to have purchased a bag of Sunwheel Natural Foods Malted Brown Flour at The Health Store in Washington Mall some "two months'' before the date of the letter.

After using the flour to make a loaf of bread, which he claims tasted "awful,'' Mr. Rowlerson said he checked the package's "best before'' date and found that the flour had expired "more than two years ago.'' At that time, he returned the flour to The Health Store and pointed out the expiry date to the sales clerk, who "didn't seem overly concerned,'' according to Mr. Rowlerson's letter.

"She just shrugged her shoulders and said that indeed (the flour had expired),'' Mr. Rowlerson said in a telephone interview. He said he did not demand a refund or receive an offer of one from the store.

A week later, Mr. Rowlerson said he returned to the store to see if the remaining flour had been removed from the shelves. He found instead "that all the bags of flour remained on the shelf but the expiry dates had been carefully obscured with a black marker pen so the customer couldn't tell how old the flour was.'' A visit to The Health Store by The Royal Gazette found a single bag of Sunwheel Natural Foods Malted Brown Flour remaining on the shelf. It was marked at half-price and the expiry date had been covered over with a black marker.

At the time Mr. Rowlerson returned to the store, there were "about 12 bags'' sitting on the shelf, he said.

Following his discovery, Mr. Rowlerson said he wrote to the store manager about what had happened. More than two months later, the store still hasn't responded, he said.

At the same time, Mr. Rowlerson said he contacted Ms Sue Davis of the Consumer Affairs Bureau to inform her of the black marks on the packages. Mr. Rowlerson said that Ms Davis told him there were no laws in Bermuda regarding expiry dates and that such matters were left to the good judgment of retailers. He said that she forwarded the complaint to the Environmental Health Office.

In a telephone interview, Ms Davis confirmed that she received "a letter'' from Mr. Rowlerson in March and that she told him shortly thereafter there was nothing her Bureau could do about the matter unless the flour was actually unsafe. To ensure that this was not the case, she said she passed the matter on to Mr. George Simons of the Environmental Health Office.

Repeated calls to the Environmental Health Office went unanswered.

The Health Store's manager, Ms Joyce Roberts, said she was aware of Mr.

Rowlerson's complaint but that she couldn't understand what he was complaining about. According to her, the store has never denied that the flour was out of date and had even marked it down in price. She said that all customers are informed of the flour's age before they buy it and that she has had no other complaints.

"We have had people consistently come in and ask for it,'' she said. In fact, "I sold the last bag to a regular customer who was very disappointed I didn't have any more.'' When asked why the store felt the need to cover the dates up if no one else had protested, Ms Roberts said that they never had been.

When informed that a Royal Gazette staffer had himself inspected a package and verified the markings, she said that "it probably came (to the store) like that.'' Mr. Rowlerson, however, said he is "absolutely certain'' that the date was not covered up when he originally bought the flour and that the markings appeared after he complained.

If the date had been brought to his attention, "I wouldn't have bought the flour'' in the first place, he said.

In a second interview, Ms Roberts said she did not answer Mr. Rowlerson's letter because it included only a Post Office box number and she was too busy running a business to write him back.

"If he had provided a phone number or stopped to discuss (the matter when he dropped the letter off), I would gladly have talked to him,'' she said. "Why hand me a letter and run out the door?'' Ms Roberts also stressed that the store does give refunds if a customer is unhappy.