According to a report, workers at two popular restaurant chains in China have been caught in an undercover video reusing leftover food scraps and treating meals with filthy hands.
Restaurant Man Ling, which has more than 1,000 locations across China and markets itself as ‘healthy’, apologized to the public after the scandalous video surfaced.
Staff were filmed using leftover food to cook congee – a classic Chinese rice porridge – as well as other repugnant practices, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday. They were also picked up by putting their unwashed hands on the food.
One employee even removed pork ribs from a pan of leftover soup and used them to cook Chinese yam and meat congee for other guests, the report said.
“Yes, it’s left over,” a Man Ling employee told the Fujian Television undercover reporter when asked if there was a food safety issue.
“It’s okay to cook again.”
Known for competitive prices, Man Ling sells more than 180 million bowls of congee every year, according to a food order analysis app.
The store in Fuzhou, in southeast China, was closed earlier this week due to the scandal, and the chain apologized Monday for “disappointing” its customers, according to the South China Morning Post.
Sanmi Congee, another famous chain restaurant with more than 1,100 stores across China, was also investigated and exposed for hiring those without a health certificate and similar unsanitary practices at one of the city’s stores.
Sanmi Congee, another popular chain with more than 1,100 locations in China, was also revealed in the undercover report of hiring people without a health certificate and similar unsanitary practices at one of its Fuzhou restaurants.
A day later, it issued a similar mea culpa and on Tuesday admitted that the “hygiene and safety hazards” had been revealed by the undercover reporter. That store was also closed and removed from online apps, the report said.
Owned by separate Shanghai-based companies, both brands have boomed in recent times thanks to their cheap offerings amid the food delivery craze.