(Yicai) May 14 -- The China arm of US fast food chain McDonald’s has apologized after two of its eateries were found to be using food past their sell-by-date and substituting inferior ingredients.

McDonald’s China is co-operating with the probe by market regulators, the company said. Any infringements of operating standards will be dealt with severely and will not be tolerated.

McDonald’s Zhuoyue Nonglian restaurant in Zhengzhou, central Henan province, and an eatery near University of Jinan in eastern Shandong province have been found to be changing shelf-life dates, selling food past its storage life, serving fried food that failed to meet quality standards and skimping on labor and materials, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

A staff member at the Zhuoyue Nonglian outlet changed the label on the bun used to make a McSpicy Chicken Fillet Burger, extending the expiry date to 2 p.m. on March 7 from 10 p.m. on March 6, according to an undercover reporter who visited the eatery at 10:40 p.m. on March 6.

The oil used by the restaurant was also below standard, the reporter said. Chicago-based McDonald’s requires cooking oil to be replaced once the polar compounds’ value tops 24. But when the reporter tested the oil during a return visit on March 9, the polar compounds’ value was 26.6.

The reporter found the restaurant near the University of Jinan to also be fiddling with expiry dates. And both outlets were using inferior ingredients to make burgers, he added.

It is not the first time that the fast food chain has found itself in hot water for such antics. Back in 2012, McDonald’s China was exposed on state broadcaster CCTV’s annual name-and-shame 315 show of ‘renewing’ the expiry dates on food products before selling them.

McDonald’s entered the China market more than 30 years ago and it now runs 6,000 outlets and employs over 200,000 people in the country. The company added 900 eateries last year, an average of one new outlet every 10 hours, setting a new record.

Editor: Kim Taylor