AN undercover reporter from Shenzhen TV has shown that the Singaporean chain store BreadTalk was reusing oil to fry doughnuts and replacing expiration date labels when sauces expired.

    The report aired over the weekend.

    The TV show, Rule of Law Space-Time, conducted the investigation by having a journalist take a job as a worker in a BreadTalk bakery in Nanshan District.

    The reporter found that the bakery never replaced the oil that was used for frying doughnuts. “The oil is used repeatedly and we will add new oil into the tank if it’s not enough,” an employee said in a footage secretly filmed by the reporter.

    Another employee said they would replace the oil if there were inspections, adding that she didn’t know whether reusing oil would harm customers or not.

    The brand responded on its Weibo account, saying that its bakeries always replace the oil before it reaches the expiration date. It added that Shenzhen’s quality supervision bureau conducted an inspection on the involved bakery Thursday, and the oil had not expired.

    “High-temperature oil may lead to cancer,” said the reporter in the program, adding that the bakery he worked for usually set the fryer’s temperature at 230 degrees Celsius and the oil seemed darker after being used repeatedly.

    The footage also showed that employees had different answers about whether the ice cubes used in teas and coffees were made of tap water or filtered water, but the employees all drank boiled water instead of the filtered water at the shop.

    The program cited an online article saying that over 300 million loaves of meat floss bread, bread made with shredded meat and one of the most popular products at BreadTalk, have been sold since the brand was created.

    A baker said they didn’t use vinegar to sterilize the mayonnaise used on the breads. “I’m not going to eat the meat floss bread myself,” the baker said in the footage.

    The reporter also found that the expiration date labels were replaced when bread sauces exceeded the shelf life. “Morning-shift staff will inspect the sauces every day and mark the expired ones on labels, but the evening-shift staff will replace them with new labels and continue using the sauces,” said the reporter.

    He added the breads will be thrown away if not sold out by the end of the day, adding that employees can eat the breads in the shop but are not allowed to take them away.

    BreadTalk has opened bakeries in over 50 Chinese cities since it entered China’s market in 2003. The 15-year-old brand is the first publicly traded bread brand in the world. (Zhang Yang)