Photo: Sina Weibo

US fast casual restaurant chain Shake Shack apologized for using expired ingredients on Sunday after one of its stores in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, was exposed by an employee for using expired ingredients, vowing a thorough inspection over its chain stores across the country.

Shake Shack (Shanghai) Limited released a statement late Sunday night, admitting that the company’s preliminary internal investigation shows that the store in question failed to dispose of expired canned spray cream in a timely manner in accordance with the company’s food safety management regulations.

The cream with a shelf life of nine months expired on June 26, 2023 but was only disposed on June 30, 2023.

The company was still waiting for investigation results from the supervision department about expired ketchup and beer which had been incorrectly labelled.

The company made a sincere apology for the incident for which the company bears responsibilities due to its management and operation on the store.

All the managing group and the employees involved in the incident will be punished in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the company will launch a self-inspection and self-correction work at the stores across China to regulate the operation and fully implement the requirements of the food safety laws, the related laws and regulations and the company’s food safety management system. 

According to a statement from Shake Shack (Shanghai) Limited released on Friday, the company attaches great importance to the media reports that its store in Wuhan was using expired ingredients. The company said it had actively cooperated with government departments involved in the investigation with its relevant store and personnel receiving thorough investigation. 

The company also said that with a candid, responsible and committed attitude, it will actively cooperate with all future government investigations and make necessary rectifications according to the final investigation results. 

According to media reports, an employee was fired by the company after reporting the incidents to the local market watchdog that expired ingredients were used at a store in Wuhan. 

The employee was transferred to the store in Wuhan in May this year and found a problem with food quality control in the store before reporting the problem to the local market watchdog and providing three videos that exposed the food quality problem, Nanfang Metropolis Daily reported on Sunday. 

According to one of the videos circulating online, a cream product with the shelf life of nine months used at the store was produced on September 26, 2022, but was still used for making foods after the expiration of its shelf life, which fell on June 25. 

The other two videos show that expired ketchup was still used and expired beer was still being sold with removed labels. 

According to Nanfang Metropolis Daily, Shake Shack was summoned by the Office of Shanghai Network and Information Security to address excessive collection of personal information last month.

The company had frequently induced users to give up information including mobile phone numbers and accurate location information. Customers were also frequently receiving pop-up windows to induce them into registering for membership, and following the company’s public accounts. 

On June 20, the company issued a rectification statement through its official channels, indicating that the relevant problems were being resolved.

Global Times