Walmart in Beijing apologizes for relabeling old meat

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-24

A closed Walmart store in Hangzhou, April 22, 2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

A Walmart store in Beijing will fully refund customers who bought raw meat products within 14 days if the product was not fresh, reports the Chinese-language Beijing Times, which had discovered the store had been putting new labels on unsold meat each morning. Some of the meat had clearly gone bad as it was discolored and had a bad odor.

Walmart said following the revelations that it will cooperate with a local government investigations and also activate its internal investigation mechanism. It also said it will also take measures against employees found responsible.

A Beijing Times reported who visited a Walmart in the city's Qinghe area discovered earlier this month that store employees would stick a new label with a later expiry date on packs of unsold raw meat from the day before at around 6 am each day and put them back on the shelf.

Questioned by the reporter, the employee said customers want fresh meat and that if the label is changed, the meat is considered fresh and from that day. It will only be "recycled" when the meat turns black or when it starts to smell bad, the report said.

The reporter also found that cuts of expired raw meat were rearranged into new packs, while raw meat that had started to smell strange would be ground into dumpling stuffing for sale.

The Beijing Times also reported that sanitary conditions did not meet required standards, as the meat was not properly washed and the fridges were merely sprayed with hot water during cleaning.

Walmart issued a statement of apology and promised to look into the claims.

Related Article:

Dutch meat trader at centre of horse scandal faces five years in jail