Merrild coffee bags with tampered expiration dates. Photo by the Food and Veterinary Service

RIGA — On Wednesday Latvian food inspection authorities uncovered an attempt by the Baltstor Ltd. retail chain to sell four metric tons of expired Merrild coffee by putting a false expiration date on the packaging.

Food and Veterinary Service officials acted on a tip from a customer that had bought the coffee, and after searching the warehouse uncovered the rest of the expired coffee not already on shelves.

Baltstor, which operates convenience stores such as Mego, Maxi Vesko, Mino Vesko and Vesko in Latvia is not commenting on the case, and its unclear how many customers actually bought the expired coffee.

Merrild praised the work of the Food and Veterinary Service.

“It is very uncomfortable that the Latvian shops and people were deceived by fraudsters,” the company said in a statement to the press.

Balstor could face a 500 lats (€705) fine for the fraud.

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