Another Well-Known Chinese Restaurant Brand Exposed Food Safety Issues Due to Spoiled Ingredients

Following the “urine gate” incident exposed by Haidilao, another well-known Chinese restaurant chain brand is embroiled in scandal. With 2518 stores, “Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice” recently faced food safety issues that shocked many consumers, leading to a hot search topic and public concern.

According to the report by the Xinjing News, journalists recently discovered various food safety problems in many franchise stores of Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice during undercover investigations.

Investigations revealed that many franchise stores of Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice were using expired ingredients that had turned sour; overnight blackened beef was artificially colored to pass as fresh beef; leftover dishes consumed by customers were recycled, with ingredients like mushrooms picked out for secondary processing and resale, presenting significant food safety concerns.

Furthermore, many of Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice stores did not require employees to provide health certificates during recruitment, resulting in a large number of uncertified staff members being directly employed.

After these scandals were exposed, the topic of “Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice reselling leftover dishes to customers” trended in hot searches, sparking public attention.

Subsequently, the official WeChat account of the Yang Mingyu brand issued an apology letter on March 12, expressing regret to the consumers for the recent food safety problems in several franchise stores under Yang Mingyu.

According to the latest news from Daxiang News, personnel from the local market supervision and management bureau stated that the Yang Mingyu Braised Chicken store on Kangfuqian Street had issues like employees without health certificates and missing purchase invoices, leading to its closure for rectification and further investigation.

The official website indicates that Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice was established in 2011 under the management of Jinan Yang Mingyu Catering Management Co. Ltd, mainly offering Shandong cuisine braised chicken rice with various snacks, with an average price of about 20 yuan per person. In the fast food chain category, Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice ranks first in the country in terms of store numbers.

Over the past six months, Yang Mingyu’s stores have noticeably decreased. As of March 10, the number of stores reduced by approximately 200 to 2518 compared to six months ago.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice has been exposed for food safety issues.

According to a report by Dahe News in 2024, in September of that year, after a company in Zhengzhou collectively ordered from a Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice, half of the employees experienced discomfort, diagnosed by hospitals as food poisoning.

In an earlier incident in July 2024, a Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice store in Sichuan was investigated by the market supervision department for allegedly serving rat in the food.

According to business risk information, several Yang Mingyu’s Braised Chicken Rice stores have been fined, including the stores in Pingdu City and Hancheng City for reasons such as lack of cleanliness in the processing area, mixing kitchen waste with other garbage containers, and reusing tableware deemed unsatisfactory after inspection.

On the same day as the Yang Mingyu brand’s apology letter, China’s largest chain hotpot restaurant, Haidilao, issued an apology for the “urine gate” incident on March 12.

The “urine gate” originated from a video shared by a netizen claiming that a man urinated in the Haidilao hotpot.

Haidilao stated that on the early morning of February 24, a 17-year-old named Tang and Wu dined at the Haidilao store on the Bund in Shanghai, and after the meal, they urinated in the hotpot, then boasted about it online. The video went viral online, causing a major uproar.

Following the incident, Haidilao announced full refunds of the dining fees to the 4109 customers who dined in the Haidilao Bund Shanghai store from February 24 to March 8, offering additional cash compensation ten times the order amount. The compensation scale exceeded tens of millions. However, many critics deemed Haidilao’s handling as one of the “most disastrous public relations” in history.

Haidilao has more than 1300 direct-operated restaurants in 164 cities across mainland China. The company has been embroiled in several food safety incidents, with monthly disclosures of issues found in various stores on its official website. Even an investigation by Legal Evening News revealed the presence of rats in ingredient rooms, serving rooms, fruit rooms, and dishwashing areas in two Haidilao stores in Beijing.

Political commentator Lan Shu expressed to New Tang Dynasty Television on March 14 that the chaos mentioned above is one of the signs of the complete collapse of Chinese social culture, attributing the root cause to the Communist Party’s thorough destruction of traditional Chinese culture after seizing control of mainland China. This erosion has led to a societal absence of any behavioral norms.