A Chinese netizen broke the news on May 29 that a number of live maggots appeared in food sold in a McDonald’s store in Shanxi province of China. According to the client, Ms. Yang, she bought a McDonald’s set meal for her child through a certain platform, but what she never expected was that she accidentally found a lot of maggots when she was about to eat the leftover burger from the child. This situation made Ms. Yang very angry, and she immediately reported the problem to the relevant authority. According to the latest news, the relevant department has been involved in the investigation and handling of the matter.
In response to this, McDonald’s China’s official Weibo account posted a comment on Weibo at noon on May 31, stating that the restaurant has been actively communicating with the customer and got to know that the customer found the situation when they were eating leftover burgers a few hours after they bought the meal on the takeaway platform.
McDonald’s China’s official Weibo said in the comment that burgers are fried or baked at high temperatures in restaurants, and under normal circumstances, no eggs will be produced. With the approach of summer, McDonald’s reminded consumers that if the food is not eaten in time, please keep it properly. For example, put it in the refrigerator to avoid attracting insects and flies.
Regarding this, Ms. Yang said that she bought the burger at noon that day. The live maggots found in the afternoon were kept at home for only 3 hours, and the worms were so small that they could not be artificially put in.
This is not the first time that McDonald’s has a food safety issue in China. According to reports, In April 2019, a Chinese woman said that after ordering McDonald’s take-out and eating 3 pieces of chicken wings, her daughter actually found that biting into the chicken wings came with multiple feathers.
In the same year, a woman in Fujian vomited after drinking McDonald’s pearl milk tea, and developed symptoms such as throat and gastrointestinal pain. The doctor diagnosed that it was a digestive tract injury caused by accidental ingestion of disinfectants.
McDonald’s entered the Chinese market in 1990 and has continued to expand over the past 31 years. According to McDonald’s China’s official website, China is the world’s second largest market for McDonald’s and its world’s largest franchise market outside the United States. As of November 2019, there were more than 3,300 McDonald’s restaurants in Mainland China with more than 190,000 employees.
In addition, from 2017 to 2019, McDonald’s opened more than 1,000 new restaurants, of which more than 430 restaurants were opened in 2019, and the number of registered members exceeded 100 million.
According to Southern Metropolis Daily of China, on January 28 this year, McDonald’s reported the fourth quarter and full year results of 2020. In 2020, McDonald’s operating income decreased by 10% year-on-year to US$19.2 billion; net profit decreased by 21% year-on-year to US$4.73 billion, and diluted earnings per share decreased by 20% year-on-year to US$6.31.
Source: The Paper