Shanghai bakery exposed for using overdue flour, 4 detained

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Four people have been held under criminal detention and another four are pending trial for their involvement in using expired flour in a Shanghai bakery, according to the city's Food and Drug Administration.

The bakery "Farine" came under fire after a netizen alleged that it had been using expired flour to bake bread. The Sina Weibo user @1987Jinbaobao posted several videos online showing the substandard conditions in the bakery.

A screenshot from @1987Jinbaobao's Weibo account of the posted video proof.

He claimed that he had been working as a baker there for about half a year, and had collected over 50 videos as proof before he tipped off the Food and Drug Administration.‍

According to @1987Jinbaobao, most of the flour used in the bakery is out of date by between one and six months.

Breads on shelves in bakery Farine. /Photo by The Paper

After receiving the report on Monday, supervisory authorities in Shanghai's Minhang district raided a warehouse belonging to the Farine Food Company, and seized over 500 bags of expired flour. The company was ordered to cease trading, and the bakery was suspended on Thursday.

According to the investigation, starting on March 6, the company is suspected to have sold 3,820 bread products made with expired flour. All of the flour seized had been imported from France.

Local police also seized another 2,300 bags of expired flour from another warehouse later on Thursday.

The person in charge of the company is not among those to have been detained, and is said to have left China before the police intervened.

Statement of Farine issued on Friday evening. /Photo by The Paper

People line up in long queue waiting to buy bread from Farine in Shanghai. /Photo from Sina Weibo

The bakery issued a statement on Friday night, apologizing for the “inconvenience caused by Farine’s recent closure”. In the statement, the bakery claimed that they had only used a “small part” of the expired flour, adding that the flour had been proven to be perfectly safe.

Before the scandal broke, Farine had enjoyed considerable popularity due to its online reputation, with long queues often forming outside the bakery. Customers said that the bakery's owner, Louis Franck, also owned at least six stores along the same road.