Burger King is a large global chain company. Burger King declared that "the taste is king, the food is fresh", "they are ready to order, and the taste is full." "Every royal castle meets the crown standard of Burger King." It is reported that there are serious problems in the actual implementation of Burger King’s standards.
Burger King in the "Fort"
The reporter then went to Nanchang to investigate. During the training process for new employees at the Burger King Tianhong Plaza store, the reporter learned that Burger King has developed a set of strict standards to specify the storage and processing standards and methods of each food in order to ensure food quality. A customer ordered the Red Braised Beef Huangbao. According to the standard, making Red Braised Beef Huangbao requires 21g mayonnaise, 21g lettuce, and two slices of tomatoes.
However, the reporter noticed that when the employees were making the red beef stew, only one slice of tomato was put, and the burger was handed over to the customer. Is it because of the employee's mistakes?
Employee of Honghongtan Tianhong Store in Burger King, Nanchang City: This standard stipulates two slices of tomatoes. I remember two slices of tomatoes, but we must not put two slices of tomatoes.
It seems that the employees of Burger King's standard remember very clearly, but the actual operation is not implemented! Even cheese slices are often kept low. According to the standards of Burger King, the three-layer cheese beefburger should be placed with three pieces of meat and three pieces of cheese. However, the reporter found that the worker secretly put one less piece of cheese and handed the burger to the customer.
Employee of Honggutan Tianhong Store in Burger King, Nanchang: Two pieces of meat put one piece of cheese, and three pieces of meat put two pieces of cheese.
In the process of making a burger, why should employees put a lot of effort into putting less tomatoes or cheese?
Reporter: Just put two slices (cheese)?
Employee of Honggutan Rainbow Store, Burger King, Nanchang: Yes, the boss stole.
The so-called Burger King quality that is difficult to guarantee
Not only is it cutting corners, but Burger King also has serious problems with how food is preserved and prepared. In order to ensure the temperature and safety of food, the ready-to-use cooked food will be placed in the product storage cabinet. These small lights of different colors have different requirements. The green light indicates that the food can be sold, the green light flashes indicates that the food is about to expire, and the red light flashes It means that the food has expired and should be discarded according to Burger King’s standards.
Employee of Honggutan Rainbow Store, Burger King, Nanchang City: That is to say, after half an hour, its meat quality has been affected, then it is not so delicious. According to the quality of Burger King, this thing should be thrown away.
The standards are very detailed, but the way workers evade the standards is simple. This holding tank is filled with chicken nuggets. After the red light flashes, it should be discarded, but the workers directly turn the red light into a green light, and then into fresh food. After half an hour, the red light flashed again, and the worker pressed the red light again to the green light. Under the trick of switching the traffic light back and forth, these chicken nuggets that should have been discarded many times before were used as fresh food and sold to customers.
Employee of Honggutan Rainbow Store, Burger King, Nanchang City: If you discard it, the meat will be thrown away.
Reporter: Then let's throw it or not?
Employee of Honggutan Rainbow Store, Burger King, Nanchang: Don’t throw it, now I press the green one, then I won’t throw it.
Reporter: Is it new again?
Employee of Honggutan Rainbow Store, Burger King, Nanchang: Yes.
The reporter has repeatedly investigated and found that such a traffic light switch trick is performed in this store every day.
Employee of the Honggutan Rainbow Store in Burger King, Nanchang City: What do you do about the red light, what do you do now? You see it is flashing, it is new, and you can wait another half an hour.
The shelf life of food can be changed at will
As the investigation deepened, the following findings were even more shocking. Burger King's bread is purchased uniformly from the outside. On the outer packaging of the bread, the manufacturer gives a clear description of the shelf life. After the frozen storage bread is taken out from the freezer, it should be thawed at room temperature. The time after thawing should not be used. Over 48 hours.
Burger King seems to do the same. He also put a label on the outer packaging of the bread, which details the time when the bread was taken out, thawed and should be discarded. However, the reporter found that these are only superficial phenomena.
On the side of Burger King's cold storage, about 70 pieces of bread are stored. The label on the bread shows that this batch of bread should be discarded at 10 pm on December 14, 2019. So after the bread expires, how will employees deal with the expired bread?
The manager of Honghongtan Tianhong Store in Burger King, Nanchang City: For the bread that expires today, change the time bar. You can see which ones are due today. The ones that expire today will be delayed by one day.
When the duty manager found that the bread expired, he naturally ordered the staff to change the label on the bread. The employees tore the old labels off the batch of burgers and replaced them with new ones. In this way, the bread that has obviously expired has transformed into a new bread that can continue to be used.
The reporter made a "D" mark on the bread with the date changed in advance.
The next day the reporter discovered that these batches of expired bread were successively taken out and made into burgers and sold to customers.
Employees told reporters that such blatantly tampering with the shelf life of bread, the phenomenon of selling expired bread often occurs.
Nanhong City Burger King Honggutan Tianhong Store Manager: The bread has a shelf life of only two days at room temperature. We unfreeze (freeze) the bread once, up to two days. However, in some cases, we may have an incorrect estimate of the next day's marketing amount, and there is a lot of bread, then there is no way to extend it to the next day.
Even in the summer when food is prone to mildew and spoilage, the shelf life will be correct.
Nanhong City Burger King Honggutan Rainbow Store Manager: It is difficult to control the room temperature in summer. If the room temperature is more than 20 degrees Celsius outside and more than 30 degrees Celsius, the quality of the bread is difficult to say.
Reporter: Will the label change in summer?
The manager of the Honggutan Rainbow Store in Burger King, Nanchang: Well.
The restaurant manager of Burger King knows very well that expired bread can easily breed bacteria and even mold, which can easily cause food safety problems.
Reporter: After expiration, will there be food safety issues?
The manager of Honghongtan Tianhong Store, Burger King, Nanchang City: The bread is placed outside. After being heated and damp, it oxidizes inside and produces mold, which may cause diarrhea when guests eat it.
Is it just such a problem with the Burger King restaurant at Rainbow Plaza in Nanchang? The reporter then investigated several other Burger King restaurants in Nanchang.
At the Burger King in Causeway Bay, Nanchang, the batch of bread has expired. The duty manager also asked the staff to modify the label to postpone the shelf life by one day, and employees have long been accustomed to this.
Employee of Burger King Causeway Bay in Nanchang City: This is just a kind change.
At the Burger King Nanchang Wangfujing store, the batch of bread is about to expire. Similarly, the duty manager asked the staff to postpone the shelf life by one day.
Reporter: Is it okay to change this directly?
Manager of Wangfujing Shopping Center, Burger King, Nanchang City: No, just expired food directly.
It's not just that expired bread is re-sold for re-sale period, this batch of expired South American-flavored chicken drumsticks is also required to modify the label to extend the shelf life.
Employee of Wangfujing Shopping Center in Burger King, Nanchang City: To see if it expires, tear it and push it back one day, usually one day after tearing it.
A reporter inquired about the Nanchang food delivery platform and found that many diners reported that Burger King's ingredients were not fresh, the burger was short of catties, and even customers had diarrhea after eating the food.
A reporter's investigation in a number of Burger King restaurants in Nanchang found that it has become a normal state to continue to sell some expired foods such as bread and tamper labels to consumers, and employees have been surprised.
Employees at the Burger King Causeway Bay store in Nanchang: unspoken rules.
Reporter: Should we also change the bread (label)?
Employees at Burger King Causeway Bay in Nanchang: Yes.
Manager of Wangfujing Shopping Center, Burger King, Nanchang City: Our store is directly changed.
Employee of Wangfujing Shopping Center in Burger King, Nanchang: You can change it yourself.
Reporter: Is the boss called to change?
Employee of Wangfujing Shopping Center in Burger King, Nanchang: The boss will also ask you to change it.
Reporter: When the weather is hot, will the bread moldy if the date is changed frequently?
Employee of Wangfujing Shopping Center in Burger King, Nanchang: Yes, there was mold on one occasion, because the bread had been left too long.
Reporter: Headquarters inspection knows that we change the label?
The manager of the Burger King Causeway Bay store in Nanchang: Of course I know, and the headquarters also knows, yes, people start from the grassroots and have been the store manager for many years.