China’s mainland continues to face a never-ending series of food safety issues, with the latest scandal involving pre-packaged bread. These kinds of foods closely related to consumers’ daily lives have seen a growing market share due to their affordable prices and convenient storage. However, pre-packaged bread has become a major area of concern for food safety, with even the food safety issues in the chain catering industry causing worry.
Public data shows that from 2019 to 2023, the market size of China’s pre-packaged baking food industry doubled from 12.48 billion yuan to 31.08 billion yuan and is expected to double again to 77.3 billion yuan from 2024 to 2028.
On the Black Cat Complaints Platform, there are 3410 complaints about “moldy bread,” 1496 complaints about “foreign objects in bread,” and 2082 complaints about finding hair, metal, and other foreign objects in bread.
Pre-packaged bread has become a major focal point for food safety issues mentioned above, with consumer reports including finding foreign objects, bugs, hair, and mold in their bread. Major brands such as Taoli, Haoshi, as well as small and medium brands on e-commerce platforms are listed in these complaints.
For example, last December, Haoshi bread was reported to have exceeded the standard for mold and became a hot topic on Weibo. A batch of “Haoshi Mini Bread,” sold at a chain supermarket in Xiangyang, Hubei, and supposedly produced by Zhengzhou Renrenli Food Co., Ltd., was found to be substandard, with mold test values reaching 1000 CFU/g, nearly six times above the standard. Following this, Haoshi bread’s chairman Ye Yuehui and his son publicly apologized in a live stream from the production workshop. This was not the first time Haoshi had mold issues. Between 2018 and 2023, almost every year, products under the Haoshi brand had reports of excessive colony counts.
As of March 12, there were 548 complaints on the Black Cat Complaints Platform related to Taoli bread, reflecting issues such as finding hair, foreign objects, flies, and mold within the shelf life.
Just regarding mold issues, incomplete statistics show that from 2024 onwards, there have been over 30 reports of substandard colony counts in baked goods publicized by local market supervision and administration departments, involving brands like Haoshi, Haoliya, Meiwei Yike, and sales channels including Yonghui, FamilyMart, chain supermarkets, and convenience stores.
According to a report released by the New Thinking Industry Research Center, in 2022, China’s baking food market size was 284.714 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 10.17%, while the commercial baking equipment market size was only 4.386 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 6.82% in the same year. Both in terms of market size and growth rate, the penetration speed of automated equipment lags far behind the industry’s expansion speed.
At the same time, during the industry’s stage of rapid growth, a large number of uneven small and medium-sized businesses have entered, including factories engaged in illegal operations.
A video posted by a blogger on a short video platform showed a messy environment in a bread manufacturing workshop in Zhongmou County, Zhengzhou City, where equipment appeared rusted, and workers were operating near the equipment without wearing dust-free clothing, and the lack of necessity for wearing clean suits became a strong attraction for hiring workers.
Apart from the pre-packaged food industry, food safety issues in the chain catering industry are also frequently encountered…
Yang Mingyu Huan Menji Chicken is a chain catering enterprise in mainland China that has been frequently exposed to food safety problems, despite being hailed as a successful example of a Chinese catering brand.
Recently, the Xinjingbao conducted undercover visits to multiple Yang Mingyu Huan Menji Chicken Rice franchise stores and found numerous food safety issues, such as the use of spoiled ingredients that had been stored for multiple days, selling leftover dishes to customers after reprocessing, and coloring overnight blackened beef to pass it off as fresh beef.
Furthermore, many stores hire staff without requiring health certificates, and a large number of unlicensed employees go directly to work.
On March 12, the issue of “Yang Mingyu Huan Menji Chicken selling leftover dishes to customers” trended, drawing attention.
The official website of Yang Mingyu Huan Menji Chicken shows franchise cities exceeding 500. According to the Southern Metropolis News, as of September 2024, Yang Mingyu Huan Menji Chicken Rice had 2,703 stores nationwide.
Tianyancha App shows that Jinan Yang Mingyu Catering Management Co., Ltd., established in December 2011, with Yang Xiaolu as the legal representative, registered capital of 10 million yuan, operates in catering services, food sales, and second-class value-added telecommunications services. The company is fully owned by Yang Xiaolu. The company has invested in three companies, two of which are in operation, namely Shandong Mingheyu Information Technology Co., Ltd., and Shandong Yang Mingyu Supply Chain Technology Co., Ltd.
Tianyan Risk Information shows that several Yang Mingyu Huan Menji Chicken Rice shops have been fined, including Yang Mingyu Huan Menji Chicken Rice shops in Pingdu City and Hancheng City.