Japanese-managed hotel in China stung for mooncake quality
29.03.2010, 02:45
(Kyodo) _ Beijing city inspectors have taken action against an upscale Japanese-managed hotel in Beijing over
quality issues of its mooncakes, local media reported Tuesday.
Római szállodák
According to the Beijing News, a municipal taskforce on Friday investigated the Hotel New Otani Chang Fu Gong and took punitive action over the 368 yuan (about $45) wine and mooncake gift boxes produced and sold at the hotel. The paper did not say what action was taken.
The New Otani says it was the only Japanese business that baked its own mooncakes for the Sunday mid-autumn festival, selling them to more than 100 Japanese companies as well as Japanese tourists in Beijing.
The Beijing News said one mooncake box, reported by a Chinese customer on Monday, contained a cake that had been opened, with a piece of hair protruding from the cake. A photo accompanying the story showed black spots on the crust of another cake in the box.
The box had no expiration date, according to the report, adding that the customer received a refund and coupons to buy more food or drinks from the hotel.
The hotel's publicity department said Tuesday that the hotel could not immediately confirm or deny the news report.
According to the Beijing News, a vice director of the municipal Food and Beverage Department, a member of the taskforce, acknowledged the Chinese consumer was right but that he had "nothing to say" about the cake defects.
Hotels in Riga
Japan's CCI Co. owns a minority share of the 14-year-old Sino-Japanese joint venture hotel, apartment and restaurant complex, which is managed by the Japanese Hotel New Otani Group.
The New Otani bakes its own mooncakes, a hockey puck-shaped pastry, because they thought mass-produced cakes on the Chinese market looked better than they taste, hotel publicity director Liu Jiayu said last week.
Forty workers including quality-control staff make the traditional treats around the clock in the two months leading up to the mid-autumn festival, hotel bakery director Jiang Zhongyong said.
Mooncake sanitation and fair pricing are issues every year as consumers and Chinese media expose sales of expired or poorly prepared pastries.