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Two Starbucks stores in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province
It was exposed that expired ingredients were used and employees tampered with the shelf life
Sparked a heated discussion
Market supervision departments in many places
Check out local Starbucks stores
On the evening of the 13th, the Wuxi Municipal Market Supervision Bureau issued an announcement that the preliminary verification of the relevant enterprises has changed the internal control period of food raw materials and used raw materials beyond the internal control period, and has instructed 2 stores involved to close for rectification, and conducted administrative interviews with Starbucks (China) Northeast China. In the inspection of 82 other Starbucks stores in Wuxi, 15 problems were found, such as employees not wearing work hats, messy placement of items in the processing area, and incomplete disinfection records.
On the 14th, the Suzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau said that it has carried out a full-coverage surprise inspection of 226 "Starbucks" stores in the city. Among them, the supervision and inspection results of 208 stores are: meet (food safety requirements). The remaining 18 stores have problems such as irregular purchase and sales inventory and scrap records, unfilled garbage cans in the processing area, unsealed storage of opened ingredients, individual employees not wearing masks when operating, and mixing food and non-food in warehouses. The problems found during the inspection have been dealt with in accordance with law and ordered to be rectified by the relevant units within a time limit.
On the 14th, the Zhaohui Institute of the Hangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau raided the Starbucks store in The West Lake Cultural Square. At the scene, the market regulator did not find that the store used expired raw materials and food, but at the store warehouse raw material storage point, the regulator found that a bag of dried fruits was in the temporary insurance period. The store manager said that the company has a complete set of expired raw materials and food scrapping system, and the cost is also borne by the company.
In addition, the Hefei Municipal Market Supervision Bureau also conducted a full coverage inspection of 34 Starbucks stores in Hefei. The on-site inspection did not find serious violations of laws and regulations such as ingredients that exceeded the shelf life or the limit date. The Hefei Municipal Market Supervision Department said that it will increase the supervision of catering service chain enterprises, innovate regulatory means, strengthen joint punishment for illegal acts, and urge catering service units to operate in accordance with laws and regulations.
At the same time, the market supervision departments in Nanjing, Changsha, Yinchuan and other places also conducted surprise inspections of Starbucks stores.
What about Starbucks in Shanghai?
Shanghai Market Supervision Department
Surprise inspections were also carried out on some stores in the city
Handling of expired ingredients in stores,
The original solution is placed and inspected
The store manager issues relevant records and monitoring information
The reporter also visited a Starbucks store in Shanghai
Staff indicated that there were no related problems
And on the black cat complaint platform
Some netizens reflected
I encounter problems such as diarrhea after eating and using dirty cups
Neither Starbucks replied
Starbucks customer service said
Problems identified in the investigation will be actively corrected
Starbucks acknowledges that ingredients are out of date
What happens after an apology?
Ingredients continue to be used after expiration, making a variety of best-selling drinks sold; supervisors, clerks "teach by example" to tamper with the shelf life, some ingredients are artificially "extended" for a week; cakes that promise to "not stay overnight after opening" are secretly on the shelves the next day... If it were not for the undercover investigation of media reporters, it would be difficult to believe that such a situation occurred in two Starbucks stores in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
In its latest statement, Starbucks acknowledged that the two stores did have operational irregularities and have now closed stores for investigation and rectification; Chinese mainland all Starbucks stores immediately launched a comprehensive self-inspection of the implementation of food safety standards.
In recent years, every similar food safety problem has occurred in Haagen-Dazs, McDonald's, Heytea and many other well-known brands, which has overdrawn the public's trust in the brand. When the question involves Starbucks, which prides itself on being "based on the industry's highest standards," it is even more shocking. After all, the world-renowned coffee brand has more than 5,000 stores in China, "according to the regulations, its stores should conduct daily food safety self-inspections, each store should accept at least one third-party surprise inspection every year, and 20% of the stores should undergo a second flight inspection."
Such strict standards and inspections can not manage the store ingredients? A food industry practitioner told the author that raw material expiration control is a recognized pain point in the industry, on the one hand, brand stores will subjectively hope to reduce the loss of non-standard materials for cost control considerations; secondly, practical staff due to busyness, carelessness and other reasons, it is easy to neglect the validity period inspection. If the store adopts the store manager responsibility system, in the face of assessment indicators such as single store performance and profit, the store staff may "turn a blind eye" to expired ingredients.
In the rectification measures of Starbucks's latest response, it is mentioned that it is necessary to "improve the technical traceability ability" of food supervision, that is, "actively explore more technical means to reduce the interference of human operation factors, and strive to eliminate the occurrence of such incidents from the source". As an international brand, it is not difficult to follow up and implement rules and regulations with technical means, but online management can only identify the expiration date of ingredients, and the handling of expired food still depends on people's concepts, especially to see how each practitioner faces food safety and store profits.
It is worth mentioning that at present, the default cost of some large brands in China is not high. In recent years, after touching the "red line" of food safety, some brands have taken the process of "brand apology, single store closure and rectification, and fines of tens of thousands of yuan". In many cases, such penalties have limited deterrent effect on big brands. The assessment of single-store performance and profits will still prompt food practitioners to "take risks". Therefore, appropriately increasing the cost of violations by merchants will help reverse the situation that "brands do not take food safety issues seriously".
20 years ago, There was a "snow seal milk poisoning" incident in Japan, and its factory blackout caused bacteria to exceed the standard for 3 hours, resulting in many people being poisoned, which made an old factory with a reputation of more than 70 years no longer operate milk business, and could only switch to butter, cheese and other products. In the face of food safety problems in many brands, it is also necessary for relevant departments to come up with more stringent supervision and punitive measures. Only when companies realize that every violation of food safety must pay a sufficient price, "food safety awareness always comes first" can truly become the primary consideration.
Source: Shangguan News