Air Canada Passenger Claims She Was Served 6-Month-Old Beef, But Viewers Say She Was Reading Date Like an American

An Air Canada passenger had a scare on a recent flight, claiming she was served expired food. However, commenters are pointing out one important detail. 

“When you’re flying Air Canada [in] Nov, 2025… and realize after finishing your meal that the beef they served expired 6 months ago,” TikTok creator Kerry Schwartz claimed in her Nov. 13 video.

“Pray for me,” she added.

In Schwartz’s video, filmed on board the plane, the content creator flips her camera from herself to her food packaging. 

The first plastic bag, wrapped around what appears to be some kind of bread, reads “06 11 25.” The next piece of green stripped tinfoil says “BEEF 05/11/2025.” 

The camera then flips back to Schwartz who purses her lips and rolls her eyes. 

In the comments, users were quick to mention that the U.S. has a different way of writing dates than much of the rest of the world.

“Girl those dates are 5th and 6th of November 2025!” one user wrote. “Everywhere else in the world writes dates as day/month/year.”

One comment poking fun at the user garnered more than 12,000 likes: “oh Americans how boring our lives would be without you  ♥️🤦.”

Others came to the defense of the airline. “It’s ok Air Canada, the comment section has got this covered,” one person said, indicating they felt they’d resolved the customer’s complaint.

“So that’s why they write ‘DO NOT DRINK’ on cleaning products in the US,” another said. 

However, speaking to PEOPLE, Schwartz claims a flight attendant confirmed her suspicions.

“I assumed the date was European as well,” Schwartz says in an email to PEOPLE. “But the bread was hard as a rock, and the food looked and tasted a little suspicious.”

She alleges the airline employee then explained the food is frozen for months and is safe to serve despite the date.

“We stopped eating the food and didn’t want to take a chance,” she says. “But my [boyfriend] did experience a belly ache the next morning!”

A representative for Air Canada did not reply to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

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Randy Worobo, a professor of food science at Cornell University, told The Points Guys in 2019 that it’s typically safe to consume airlines’ frozen foods. 

“If [food]’s been properly packaged with moisture barriers — very good packaging that prevents moisture loss during storage — it’s totally fine,” he said. “It doesn’t represent a safety issue.”

He added: “It’s not like they took salad and the cooked meat and put it in the fridge for 18 months. Go in your grocery store, look at the foods that are frozen and look at what the shelf life is. Most of them are a year, and it’s totally fine.”