Ministry to inspect McDonald's restaurant next week
McDonald's Korea employees serve BTS meal sets at a restaurant in Seoul on May 27. Korea Times file
'McDonald's Korea did not use expired buns:' food and drug safety ministry
By Kim Jae-heun
McDonald's Korea's Managing Director Antoni Martinez / Courtesy of McDonald's Korea
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said that it will conduct a safety inspection of the McDonald's Korea's restaurant that allegedly used expired buns recently. However, the ministry said that this inspection is only a regular sanitation check, carried out twice a year, and that it is not investigating the restaurant for any special purpose related to the scandal.
“The fact is that McDonald's Korea did not use expired food materials. The expiration date that the American fast food restaurant chain uses has been shortened in Korea to provide fresher quality in its burgers,” the food ministry official said.
According to the official apology issued by McDonald's Korea on Aug. 6, the fast food restaurant chain said that it uses a stricter expiration date system of its own, which is shorter than the general one. “We nonetheless apologize for not following our own system,” McDonald's Korea said.
However, progressive minor opposition parties such as the Justice Party and the Basic Income Party said that this was just an excuse and that McDonald's Korea is playing with words.
“The general expiration date that McDonald's Korea is referring to is one used for frozen food. McDonald's Korea is lying,” a special countermeasure committee established by the Justice Party and local civic groups said.
The countermeasure committee took further steps and urged local customers to boycott the fast food restaurant chain.
“We are declaring a nationwide boycott movement against McDonald's Korea, which has threatened public health by manipulating the expiration date stickers on its food materials and blaming its part-time workers for the incident,” the committee said during a press conference held in Jongno, Seoul, last Monday.
Rep. Yong Hye-in of the Basic Income Party also held a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday, urging the food ministry and experts from external investigating bodies to look into the case.
“McDonald's Korea has not learned its lesson from its previous 'hamburger disease' case. It is trying to avoid responsibility and is repeating the same mistake it made previously,” Rep. Yong said. “The McDonald's restaurant that was caught using stickers with outdated expiration dates has been doing this for over a year. There is a lot more testimony that indicates other McDonald's restaurants have been using expired buns too.”
Meanwhile, a McDonald's employee reported to the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission on Aug. 3 that she and her colleagues had been using past-expiry hamburger buns and tortillas in food served to customers. The whistleblower submitted several video clips showing part-time workers putting new expiration date stickers on top of the old ones. She claimed that this practice has been taking place since last year.
McDonald's Korea immediately imposed severe punishments, suspending the part-time workers for three months. The restaurant manager was also suspended two days later, but Rep. Yong says that the part-time workers were not at fault. “They were merely scapegoated in this case,” Rep. Yong said.
The countermeasure committee added that it will continue to boycott the fast food restaurant chain until they withdraw the suspension placed on the part-time workers.
McDonald's Korea conducted an internal investigation independently and revealed that there is no problem concerning the health of customers who ate reportedly expired buns at the restaurant. However, it also said that it will come up with new measures to allow customers to check the expiration dates of their foods from now on.
It is unknown how many people ate at the restaurant over the last year.
The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission has begun an investigation into this case with results forthcoming.