American supermarket giant Wal-Mart has launched a probe into its store in Shenzhen after local media reported a big number of expired meat had been sold there.
The Shenzhen Television Station aired a video taken by a supposed employee for Wal-Mart’s Honghu store, showing expired meat as well as reused oil used to fry the meat, possibly to cover the taste. The man said he worked for the store in the city for eight years.
In the video, the man said a lot of meat past their sell-by dates were being fried then sold to customers. This has been going on since last year, he said.
The man said the oil would be used repeatedly for at least one month – even when it was already black.
According to the report, to save costs, the management of the store even sold moth-infested rice to customers instead of returning them to the suppliers or discarding them.
Wal-Mart released a statement on Thursday saying an internal investigation was launched into the Shenzhen branch, but insisted there was no direct evidence to prove the video’s authenticity.