McDonald’s outlets in Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Agricultural Union and Jinan University were recently exposed for replacing expiry labels on ingredients to automatically “extend their life,” exceeding the standard for frying oil, and reducing the amount of ingredients in burgers. This revelation has sparked widespread discussion. It is reported that the issue of using expired ingredients by changing labels to continue using them is not new, as food safety problems at McDonald’s in China have repeatedly trended on Weibo.
According to the Xinjingbao report, a journalist went undercover at both the McDonald’s outlets in Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Agricultural Union and Jinan University and found that both restaurants had problems such as tampering with food expiration labels, using expired ingredients, selling food past its shelf life, and cutting corners in ingredients. The Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Agricultural Union McDonald’s also had issues with the quality of frying oil. A mainland journalist went undercover to track the black market of food production at McDonald’s!
Expired Ingredients Re-labeled to “Extend Their Life”
Frozen bread is a staple for making burgers at McDonald’s restaurants. Such bread, when delivered to the restaurants, is usually thawed in advance. In the McDonald’s kitchen, employees are required to label frozen bread with thawing time, usable time, and expiration time after taking them out of the freezer, and ingredients must be discarded after expiration.
At 10:40 p.m. on March 6th, in the kitchen of McDonald’s Zhengzhou Zhuoyue Agricultural Union, the bread used to make McSpicy Chicken Burger had expired. The journalist reported this situation to an older employee in the kitchen, but the employee did not discard the bread as required but instead warned him, “Don’t make a fuss, just focus on your tasks, you don’t need to worry about the labels.”
Subsequently, the employee used scissors to cut off the labels on the bread packaging and re-posted a new label, extending the expiration time from March 6th at 10 p.m. to March 7th at 2 p.m. That night, other employees also “extended the life” of expired bread for another day.
Not only bread, but the meat inside the burgers was also “extended” in the same way. On March 10th, eight bags of teriyaki chicken legs in the thawing area, which were due to expire at night, had their shelf life extended by 16 hours, with the new label showing the expiration time changed to March 11th at 2 p.m. The duty manager also tacitly approved of these actions.
On the evening of April 5th, the journalist found two bags of teriyaki chicken legs due to expire that night at the McDonald’s Jinan University outlet, needing to be discarded. However, the duty manager attributed it to a labeling error and instructed him to change the expiration time, saying, “Change the expiration time from March 5th at 9 p.m. to March 6th at 2 p.m.” Sometimes the duty manager would personally change the expiration date.
In order to ensure that customers consume high-quality food and achieve the best taste, McDonald’s has established standards for the “second shelf life” of ingredients, and all food beyond its shelf life is prohibited from being sold to customers.
At 4 p.m. on March 9th, after the peak dining hours, in the warming cabinet of the kitchen of McDonald’s Zhuoyue Agricultural Union, there were still three fried chicken drumsticks that had been cooked but not sold. According to regulations, fried chicken drumsticks must be placed in the warming cabinet after frying, and the countdown function must be activated. If they are not sold within 20 minutes, they must be discarded. However, these drumsticks remained unsold until 5 p.m., and no staff member disposed of them until the dinner rush hour, when these drumsticks, fried in the afternoon, were gradually sold to customers.
The same situation occurred at the McDonald’s Jinan University outlet, where an employee said, “When someone comes to inspect, even if there’s just one left, or one or two, they have to be discarded when it’s time, or it’s a violation. If no one checks, there’s no need to discard them.”
On April 5th, a burger made at noon had dried out by the afternoon due to being left out for too long. When someone ordered it, the duty manager instructed the staff to repackage the burger, which had lost its texture, and resell it to the customer, saying, “Change the wrapping paper, add another slice of cheese, and change the bottom bun.”
In addition, McDonald’s also stipulates the usage time of ingredients such as lettuce, cheese slices, and tomatoes, equipped with timers for tracking, and has made clear regulations on the frequency of hand washing and changing towels for kitchen staff. However, during the investigation, employees at both restaurants never used the timers, and even when the clock reminded them to wash hands or change towels, they remained indifferent, with some employees saying, “Just remember to do it when someone comes to check.” Exceeding the standard for frying oil, reducing ingredients in burgers
Most of the McDonald’s menu items require frying. In McDonald’s employee training courses, it is mentioned that before filtering oil every day, employees need to test the polar component value of the frying oil, and if it exceeds 24, the oil must be replaced.
The frying area in the kitchen of McDonald’s Zhuoyue Agricultural Union has six oil tanks, each frying different types of ingredients. Oil tanks 1 and 2 need to fry five types of ingredients including chicken wings, chicken tenders, large chicken patties, McSpicy chicken thighs, and chicken nuggets, with higher frequency of use and faster oil deterioration due to large volume frying.
The oil in tanks 1 and 2 was replaced on the evening of March 7th, and by the evening of the 9th, it had turned dark, and even after filtering, it remained unchanged. After detecting the polar component value, the duty manager did not require replacement.
The journalist asked, “This oil has turned black, don’t you need to replace it?” Another employee said it might be because no one checked over the weekend, so they continued to use it. On the night of March 9th, the journalist tested the polar component value of tank 1 oil to be 26.6. This tank oil had exceeded McDonald’s replacement standard and was only 0.4 away from the national standard for disposal but continued to be used until the night of the 10th.
In addition to the oil issue, both outlets tried to save costs by cutting corners in making burgers.
The Egg McMuffin is a burger in McDonald’s breakfast menu. According to the standard, the product requires frying two eggs, then adding bacon, Canadian bacon, and cheese. During breakfast peak hours, employees would fry eight eggs at a time, then divide them into four portions to add to the burgers. However, employees at the Zhuoyue Agricultural Union outlet in Zhengzhou often only fry seven eggs, saying, “Once it’s cooked, you can’t tell.”
An employee at the Jinan University outlet said that this restaurant uses several bottles of McChicken sauce every day, which is the most consumed sauce of all. However, to save costs, “Normally, each burger needs 20 ml of sauce, but they (the restaurant) wanted to save sauce, so they only used 10 ml from the sauce. When someone comes to inspect, they switch back to the correct amount.”
McDonald’s label swapping incidents are not a first-time occurrence.
Reports indicate that the problem of using and selling expired ingredients by swapping labels has occurred at McDonald’s before.
In 2012, CCTV’s “3.15” evening program specifically mentioned violations such as using expired food and reselling it at the McDonald’s Sanlitun restaurant. At that time, McDonald’s issued a public statement expressing apologies to consumers and pledged to deepen management in response to the incident, providing consumers with safe and hygienic food.
In October 2021, McDonald’s hit the hot search again due to food safety issues. A blogger conducted a secret investigation at a McDonald’s restaurant in Hefei, Anhui Province, and discovered problems such as the use of blackened lettuce and the replacement of expired ingredient labels. Afterwards, McDonald’s responded by stating that it required all restaurant general managers nationwide to re-verify food safety practices.
In March 2022, an employee at a McDonald’s franchise in Nanjing reported that expired meat ingredients were still being served to customers. The employee stated that on multiple occasions, at the instruction of the duty manager and store manager, expired food labels were torn off and replaced with new ones.