Statement Regarding Recent Media Reports
We appreciate the oversight provided by the media. We are actively cooperating with local market regulatory authorities for investigation and verification. We will not tolerate any actions that violate operational standards and will handle them seriously.
We sincerely apologize for the impact caused by the involved restaurants. We have an obligation to address this issue and will further enhance the implementation and enforcement of restaurant operational standards, persisting in instilling the right values in every restaurant and every employee.
McDonald’s China
May 13, 2024
【Previous Report】
Did McDonald’s Replace Expired Ingredients with New Labels? Official Response: Investigation and Evidence Gathering Completed
On the 13th, the news of “McDonald’s replacing expired ingredients with new labels” sparked discussion among netizens.
At 10:10 a.m. on the 13th, China Economic Net and Weibo separately called the market regulatory departments of the involved stores, McDonald’s Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Nonglian Restaurant and McDonald’s Jinan University Restaurant. The relevant personnel stated that they had “gone to the involved stores for investigation and evidence collection.”
“If everything goes smoothly, we can have (the investigation) results before noon, at the latest by the end of today (the 13th),” a staff member of the Zhengdong New District Market Supervision Administration in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, told China Economic Net.
At 9:20 a.m. on the 13th, China Economic Net and Weibo called the two involved stores mentioned above, both of which were operating normally. Among them, the staff at McDonald’s Jinan University Restaurant said they had not noticed the relevant news and had not received any notification from McDonald’s China headquarters; the staff at McDonald’s Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Nonglian Restaurant also stated that they were “unaware” of the matter.
According to a report by the Beijing News, recently, reporters went undercover at McDonald’s Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Nonglian Restaurant and McDonald’s Jinan University Restaurant, and found that both restaurants had problems such as tampering with food shelf-life labels, using expired ingredients, selling food past the expiration date, and reducing ingredients. McDonald’s Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Nonglian Restaurant also had excessive oil quality during frying.
Regarding the aforementioned behaviors of McDonald’s stores, netizens commented: “It’s right next to the office, almost everyone has eaten at this store, who knows…” “I always trusted their hygiene” “McDondond, you betrayed me.”
This is not the first time McDonald’s has been accused of replacing expired ingredients with new labels for continued use and sale. According to public information, as early as 2012, CCTV’s “3.15” Evening Gala called out McDonald’s Sanlitun Restaurant in Beijing for irregular operations such as refurbishing and reselling expired food; In October 2021, a McDonald’s restaurant in Hefei, Anhui Province, was also exposed for using lettuce that turned black and replacing expired ingredient labels; In March 2022, it was reported by the media that a McDonald’s store in Nanjing changed the labels of expired meat products for reuse.
McDonald’s entered the Chinese market in 1990 and, as of the end of 2023, has had over 5,500 stores in China. China is currently the second-largest market for McDonald’s globally. According to official disclosures from McDonald’s, McDonald’s China is moving towards the goal of surpassing 10,000 restaurants by 2028.
The official website shows that McDonald’s restaurants adhere to globally renowned quality standards and principles of food safety with food and packaging suppliers, integrating this philosophy into every aspect from field to table, striving for perfection to ensure that every customer can enjoy safe and delicious food.
Regarding the issue of stores “relabeling expired ingredients,” China Economic Net sought confirmation from McDonald’s China on the morning of the 13th, but as of the time of publication, no response has been received.