The photo taken on December 7, 2020 shows a Wallace restaurant in Yichang, Hubei Province. Photo: CFP

The market regular in Shanghai summoned the executives from the Chinese fast-food chain restaurant Wallace and carried out surprise inspections to its stores in Shanghai after a food sanitation incident.

The market regulator asked the firm's executives to immediately rectify food safety problems,conduct self-examination, strengthen daily management of its locations and regularly report food safety situation to local market regulators.

Wallace announced on Saturday that one of its restaurants in Beijing, which involved in a food sanitation incident has now been closed to allow for a rectification and investigation. 

Wallace posted an announcement on its official account of Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-liked social media platform, on Saturday evening. The announcement said the involved restaurant in Beijing had been closed and vowed to enhance the staff training and supervision. The announcement also apologized for the problems and concerns that caused. 

Media reports alleged that a Wallace staff member in a restaurant in Beijing handled food without wearing masks and gloves. Reports also suggest that chicken nuggets were still put into fry pan even if it was dropped accidentally on the ground and detergent for cleaning ventilator was also dropped into the fry pan. 

Prior to this reporting coming to light, Wallace had already become an Internet meme on Chinese social media that the foods of Wallace can make customers scour. Netizens joked that the meme was finally proved. 

Wallace now has about 10,000 branch restaurants nationwide and was praised as the second place of top 10 Chinese fast food brands in 2018, said the official website of Wallace.