MOS Burger, the second-largest fast-food chain in the nation, is facing allegations that it fabricated the daily test results of its frying oil, with other fast-food giants also reportedly failing to do a decent job.
According to a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily, a 37-year-old man, surnamed Sun (孫), who works at the Hsinchu Science Park, recently told the newspaper that two MOS Burger branches he frequented in Hsinchu had falsified their frying oil quality tests.
Sun was a loyal customer of the fast-food chain until he detected something unusual about the two branches’ oil quality charts two years ago, prompting him to investigate. Sun proceeded to take pictures of the charts whenever he visited the outlets, the report said.
“The first picture Sun took showed that one of the branches had failed to write down its daily oil quality test results for six consecutive days. As of October last year, he had taken 17 photographs, which showed the charts were once left unfilled for 10 straight days,” the paper said.
Sun was quoted by the newspaper as saying that there were also times when the result of a quality test due to be conducted at 11pm was filled in the chart in the afternoon.
“The stores clearly just conducted the quality test for show,” Sun was quoted as saying.
“Given that even those two branches that are quite popular in Hsinchu were not honest in carrying out the tests, I have a hard time believing the chain’s other 200 branches take the tests seriously,” Sun was quoted as saying.
The newspaper also inspected other large fast-food chains. It found that while McDonald’s conducts oil quality tests twice a day, it only let customers know whether the results met government requirements instead of releasing the data.
KFC carries out just one test a day and did not specify the oil’s acid value — an indicator of whether the oil’s composition has changed because of repeated use — at the time the test was conducted. Burger King did not release any results at all.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has asked fast-food restaurants to monitor the quality of their edible oil since a 2009 food scare in which many establishments were found to have used the same batch of oil for more than a week, which can result in a buildup of carcinogens.
MOS Burger said all its employees were required to conduct oil quality tests and release the results in accordance with regulations. The company said it was looking into the matter and would make necessary improvements.
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