Lotteria hit for series of food hygiene problems

A complaint posted by a consumer on Lotteria's website, June 7 / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

Lotteria, a major fast food franchise operated by Lotte GRS, has been in the hot seat for a series of recent incidents in which its franchisees sold unhygienic hamburgers and other products, according to industry officials, Monday.

The latest incident involved its franchised restaurant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, where a customer saw a restaurant employee on June 7 making a hamburger with a bun that had been on the floor. The customer complained immediately, but the staffer said he had discarded the bun in a trash can.

The customer then asked the worker to look for the bun in the trash and the worker later confessed he had lied.

Considering that Lotteria operates over 1,000 restaurants across the country, the consumer saw the necessity to report the issue to the headquarters and left a complaint message on Lotteria's website. He also reported the case to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

“Not only that the Lotteria staffer used a tainted bun even after noticing that I was watching the whole scene, he further wiped the dirt pasted in the mayonnaise to the bun with tissue paper,” the message read. “Lotteria's customer service center also responded very insincerely. I wanted to raise awareness of food hygiene and decided to make it public.”

A live cockroach was found in a fountain drink served at Lotteria's store in Gyeonggi Province, April 12. / Yonhap

The fast food chain admitted the incident was true and apologized.

“We checked the footage recorded with surveillance cameras installed at our restaurant and the customer's complaint turned out to be true. We provide face-to-face hygiene education to all store employees every month and our worker at Changwon also received it. We are also confused by why such a thing happened and it is our indisputable fault,” a Lotteria official said.

Changwon City conducted an instant on-site inspection and found out that the restaurant was also using unhygienic cooking utensils. The store was fined 1.5 million won ($1,163).

In April, Lotteria also came under fire over poor hygiene. One of the Lotteria restaurants in Gyeonggi Province was suspended from doing business for five days after serving a fountain drink that contained a live cockroach.