A milkshake originally priced at 15 yuan on McDonald's menu has been resold for as much as 150 yuan by scalpers on second-hand platforms. Meanwhile, in the back kitchen, this star product that made a high-profile return this year has been accused of becoming a "problem ingredient" that was illegally transferred across stores, transported at room temperature, and sold after ledger data was tampered with.
Whistleblower Identifies "Six Major Violations"
Recently, a current McDonald's employee filed a real-name whistleblower report on social media, alleging that a Beijing Tongzhou regional operations supervisor surnamed Chen committed multiple food safety violations involving the Jiukeshu restaurant and several other stores in the region, with the relevant actions concentrated in August 2026. According to public materials from the whistleblower surnamed E, six major violations were identified, including illegal cross-store transfers of semi-finished products, selling expired milkshake mix, transporting products without cold chain throughout the entire process, and tampering with FOB loss ledgers.
Public information shows that the McDonald's Beijing Jiukeshu restaurant is affiliated with Beijing McDonald's Food Co., Ltd. Jiukeshu Restaurant, a subsidiary store of Beijing McDonald's Food Co., Ltd. Beijing McDonald's is jointly held at 50% each by Golden Arches Joint Venture Holdings Limited and Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co., Ltd.
Specifically, the supervisor involved privately transferred milkshake-specific mix exclusively designated for the Jiukeshu restaurant to other stores that did not have the qualification to sell milkshakes, processing and selling the milkshake mix as regular ice cream mix. Milkshake mix and regular ice cream mix have different formulas and applicable equipment standards. Mixing them not only resulted in thin ice cream texture and multiple customer complaints, but also frequently caused sundae machine cylinder freezing and equipment failures, increasing hardware wear and tear at the stores.
The milkshake at the center of this controversy is precisely the star product that McDonald's brought back to the market this year. In the early days of the milkshake's return, it even spawned a purchasing agent business. On the second-hand trading platform Xianyu, two cups of milkshakes originally priced at 15 yuan were packaged by scalpers at a listed price of 150 yuan, a markup of nearly ten times.
The transportation process also raised suspicions. Whistleblower information shows that the milkshake mix transferred across stores did not use cold chain vehicles, but relied on ordinary private cars and errand delivery services. In August, Beijing experienced sustained high temperatures, and after dairy products left the cold chain, the risk of temperature exceedance and spoilage increased significantly.
The materials also mention that during an internal inspection on August 16, the acting regional head had already discovered some stores using expired milkshake mix in violation of regulations, but the issue was not reported according to procedures.
Even more alarming are the allegations of ledger data falsification. The whistleblower materials claim that in order to cover up the cross-store circulation of near-expiry milkshake mix and the failure to scrap it according to regulations, the management personnel involved instructed stores to modify the FOB food loss ledger, altering semi-finished product shelf life and scrapping history records, and circumvented the ingredient scrapping process through system data flow, resulting in near-expiry and expired milkshake mix not being scrapped according to the system and continuing to be put into production and sales.
It is understood that McDonald's has a dedicated compliance whistleblower hotline, but the whistleblower surnamed E chose to file a real-name public report on social media. The reporter contacted McDonald's regarding the whistleblower process, internal investigation progress, and the authenticity of the report contents, but had not received a response as of publication time.
Repeatedly Drawn into Food Safety Controversies
This is not the first time McDonald's has been drawn into a food safety controversy recently. In early September, an employee at a McDonald's store in Shenzhen was photographed repeatedly compacting a trash can with a food tray while cleaning up garbage. McDonald's responded that the behavior did not conform to operating standards, and that store and regional employees had relearned garbage disposal and food tray sanitization standards, with the employee involved to be handled according to regulations.
In July, a consumer at the Zhengzhou Qilihe store claimed that a staff member made what appeared to be a spitting motion toward a takeout cola. The incident has been handed over to public security and market regulatory authorities for investigation.
Even earlier, stores in Zhengzhou and other locations were exposed for tampering with shelf life labels, using expired ingredients, and excessive frying oil standards, among other issues.
In addition, searches on social media platforms reveal that some McDonald's employees wear their work uniforms to take photos and shoot videos inside McDonald's restaurants. According to the Food Service Food Safety Operating Standards, processing and production shall be carried out by designated personnel, and non-processing personnel shall not enter designated work areas without authorization. Before entering designated work areas, processing personnel should change into dedicated work clothes and hats and wear masks. Processing personnel should strictly clean and disinfect their hands before processing, and clean and disinfect their hands at appropriate times during the processing.
Although the standards do not explicitly state "no photography" word for word, the talking, laughing, body movements, and holding mobile phones and other non-production tools while entering food exposure areas during video shooting may all cause direct or indirect contamination of food.
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