US-based fast casual restaurant chain Shake Shack has pledged to conduct a comprehensive inspection across its stores in China.
The Global Times reported that the pledge comes after an expose revealed the use of expired ingredients at one of its restaurants in Wuhan of Hubei Province.
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The use of expired ingredients was exposed by a store employee who said that the store had used expired cream, ketchup and beer but continued selling them after removing labels.
After reporting the incident to market regulators, the employee is said to have been fired.
The employee is said to have been transferred to the store in May this year before noticing issues with quality control at the store. He also provided three videos to the local market watchdog as proof.
In a statement, the restaurant chain admitted that the store in question failed to discard an expired canned spray cream as per the company’s food safety management regulations.
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By GlobalDataThe spray cream was said to have an expiry date of 26 June 2023, but it was only disposed of on 30 June 2023.
Shake Shack is currently investigating whether the store had indeed used expired ketchup and expired beer with new labels.
The company has already issued an apology for the incident.
The company further noted that all employees involved in this incident will be punished as per the relevant laws.
Meanwhile, a gas tank explosion at a restaurant in Yancheng City in the Jiangsu province resulted in the death of one individual. Channel New Asia also reported that another individual had been wounded.
This has raised concerns over gas safety. A similar accident was reported last month in the northwestern Ningxia region. The gas tank explosion at a barbeque restaurant killed 31 people.
