A famous milk tea brand with branches in several countries including Thailand is facing intense criticism in China after a video surfaced showing a female employee preparing a drink with bare hands at its Fujian branch. The employee has since been fired and the store closed.
The video, shared on Douyin, shocked netizens worldwide, especially fans of milk tea. In the widely circulated clip, an employee wearing a mask and the uniform of the international milk tea chain, which also operates in Thailand, is seen handling ingredients with bare hands, stirring the drink without gloves, and pouring tea through her hand into a cup.
Moreover, the employee is shown scooping spilled tea from the counter into the drink cup, then stirring again with her bare hands, prompting many netizens to question the shop's hygiene standards.
On Tuesday, 6 Jan 2024 GMT+7, the famous tea brand issued a statement on Weibo confirming the incident occurred at its Longwen Baolong Plaza store in Zhangzhou city, Fujian province. CCTV footage and internal investigations revealed the employee recorded the video herself, claiming it was to generate online buzz and calling the drink "Indian-style milk tea."
The company also disclosed that the drink was made from leftover ingredients at closing time and was discarded immediately after filming; it was never sold to customers.
The company expressed shock and anger over the employee’s behavior, emphasizing that it seriously violated the company’s food safety standards and breached principles of honest business conduct.
They stressed that their tea production process normally relies entirely on automated machinery and that they will not tolerate food safety being treated as a joke or used as content for gaining views.
The company immediately closed the store and terminated the involved employee. In addition to the employee's dismissal, the store manager and regional supervisor were demoted for failing to properly supervise staff. The company reaffirmed that the store will remain closed until it passes stringent food safety inspections and that this incident will lead to stricter standards across all branches.
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