McDonald's Korea apologizes for using 'expired' buns

McDonald's hamburger menu set / Korea Times file

Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission begins investigation of McDonalds

By Kim Jae-heun

McDonald's Korea has admitted that one of its restaurants in Seoul had been using expired hamburger buns and tortillas starting last year. The fast food restaurant chain apologized for the incident, but it said the headquarters had not been aware of the case and attributed it to a part-time worker.

“Our employee confessed that she made the decision to use the expired food materials. We have taken disciplinary action against the part-timer as well as her restaurant manager, who left in July,” an official said.

Local reports said Tuesday that a whistleblower reported to the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission that her colleagues had been using expired hamburger buns and tortillas in food served to customers.

In a video submitted for evidence, McDonald's staffers put new expiration date stickers on top of the old ones. A whistleblower turned in several videos and she claimed that this practice had been taking place for almost a year since 2020.

The former worker said her store manager ordered her and her colleagues to add the new stickers and they had no other choice but to follow orders. They were forced to change the expiration dates every morning and night before the opening and closing of the restaurant.

“We are not the only restaurant doing this as far as I am concerned. Every restaurant is taking care of their own losses coming from the food ingredient waste, and managers are responsible for this. I guess they made the decision to relabel them because they felt like they had to reduce the losses,” a whistleblower was quoted as saying in reports.

McDonald's Korea said it will take more thorough steps to protect the quality of food materials served.

“We conducted an internal investigation and there was relabeling of food materials at one restaurant. We took strict measures over the matter in accordance with internal regulations,” McDonald's Korea said in a statement released on Wednesday.

This is not the first time McDonald's Korea has been reported for a food safety issue.

In 2019, nine civic groups here filed a complaint through the prosecution that McDonald's Korea served improperly cooked patties that could possibly cause health problems to customers. Prosecutors rejected the claim citing lack of evidence.

To relieve public anxiety though, the fast food restaurant chain held an open kitchen event at one of its restaurants to show customers its food preparation processes.

At that time, McDonald's Korea promoted its new food safety system that included putting expiration date stickers on the ingredient packaging to ensure the staff don't use outdated buns, vegetables or meat.

It is unknown how many customers ate expired foods over the last year, and the fast food franchise has not come up with any measures to determine this.

the company said it will come up with new measures to enable customers to check the expiration dates for their buns or tortillas. In the meantime, the government agency has begun its investigation.