Pickled cabbage flavored instant noodle from Master Kong Photo:CFP

The pickled cabbage flavored instant noodles from food company Master Kong is back on sale and snapped up in Shanghai, with all warehouse inventory being sold out, a sales worker from the company in Shanghai said.

Last month, the brand's noodle safety issues connected to the processing of the pickled cabbage at Hunan Chaqi Vegetable Co came to light.

Master Kong service workers said that the products of the four plants involved in the media-exposed pickled cabbage supplier have been removed from the shelves, and other plants of the company producing the instant noodles are operating normally. 

On Wednesday, "Master Kong's pickled cabbage flavored instant noodles return to supermarket shelves" topped the search trend on Chinese social platform Sina Weibo, with some netizens expressing concerns about the brand's quality.

As of 2:00 pm on Thursday, the topic has been viewed more than 9 million times.

The topic went viral after some consumers in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, found the brand's instant noodles are back in stock, together with a quality report issued by the local market regulator indicating that seasoning bags of pickled cabbage had passed a review by food safety authorities there. 

The original food safety issue was exposed by China Media Group at its annual '3.15 Gala', which focuses on protection of consumers' rights, with a video showing workers, some wearing open footwear, some even barefooted, stepping on pickled cabbage. 

E-commerce platforms like JD.com and Taobao later removed the brand's instant noodles and other products containing the ingredient.


Global Times