Shake Shack fined US$14,000 for using expired ingredients
A ShakeShack shop in Shanghai.
Fast-food brand Shake Shack was fined over 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) by the Wuhan market watchdog for its use of expired ingredients, business data website tianyancha.com showed.
The reason for the penalty reveals that Shake Shack's Wuhan branch had used expired cream, tomato sauce, and brown sugar and was unable to provide valid certificates for purchased products such as apple cider and craft beer.
In addition to the 10,000 yuan penalty imposed on the shop, an illegal gain of 6,012 yuan was confiscated, and the shop's manager also received a fine of 57,000 yuan.
This scandal came to light in July when a former employee of Shake Shack's MixC Wuhan store disclosed that the establishment had been using expired cream in their beverages.
Consequently, the employee was terminated by the company after reporting this issue to the local market watchdog.
On July 16, Shake Shack released a statement confirming the use of expired ingredients and issued an apology.
According to the corporate information provider Tianyancha, on August 23 Wuhan market watchdog imposed a fine of more than 150,000 yuan on Shake Shack for using expired ingredients.
