Consumers complaints about moldy foods in a Brazilian website

The present study aimed to quantify the dissatisfaction registered of moldy foods within the expiration date in a Brazilian complaint site. A total of 36.409 records were accessed in the site "Reclame Aqui" and the complaints corresponded from October 2015 to January 2018. The bomboniere class was the one that presented the largest number of complaints (46.5%) and, in this segment, chocolate and bonbon presented the highest percentage of complaints (52.4%). In the grocery class, the second most cited category (24.4%), the food with the most presence of mold was bread (82.8%). The dairy products category also had high consumer complaints (19.1%), mainly involving cheeses (77.2%). Pizzas (54%) and cereals (40%) were the foods most affected by mold contamination in the frozen and breakfast foods class, respectively. The difficulties of categorization of products as well as the confusion by consumers with regard to the recognition of the alterations present in the foods were obstacles in the use of the data present in the site of complaints.