Starbucks on Monday apologized and said it would carry out inspections and staff training across all its roughly 5,400 stores in China after a state-backed newspaper said two of its outlets used expired ingredients.
The Beijing News newspaper, in what it described as an undercover investigation, said the incidents occurred at two stores in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi.
The incident became a trending topic on China's Weibo social media site after the report was published and Starbucks (SBUX) initially said it had shut the two stores and was carrying out an investigation.
Later on Monday it said it had found that the two stores had indeed committed violations and that the company had not sufficiently paid attention to food safety standards.
"We sincerely apologize to all of Starbucks' customers," it said in a statement on its official Weibo account.
The Wuxi's Market Supervision Administration also said in a statement late on Monday that after conducting investigations on the two stores involved in the incident, it also carried out checks on all 82 Starbucks stories in the city, finding 15 issues in total, including employees not wearing work caps and disinfections records not being complete.
One of the Starbucks stores used expired matcha liquid to make lattes, while another had put pastries up for sale that were meant to be thrown away.
