Fast food giant McDonald's and French supermarket chain Carrefour have apologized to Chinese consumers following the exposure of food safety scandals on March 15. The two companies said they are willing to cooperate with government inspections to ensure the highest standard of food safety.

Quick apologies are announced after a report exposed food safety problems at a Mcdonald's branch in Beijing.

Sophia Luan, vice president of McDonald's in China, said, "As a member of the managerial staff, I'm very sorry for the loopholes in our system. I apologize to our customers. From today, we will rectify operations of more than 1,400 outlets in China, not only this one."

The food safety scandal was exposed on March 15, showing that a McDonald's branch in Beijing was selling fried chicken wings beyond the preset time limit, and worse still, dropped cutlets were directly picked up for use again.

Investigators started probing the problems immediately.

Yan Chuanyan, food safety supervisor, said, "Trash cans in the operation room were not covered in time. The bread bases stored in normal the atmospheric temperature were mixed with groceries, which violates our rule; moreover, there were some damage to plastic bags of some bread bases, which led to food contamination."

The branch has been closed until the investigation is complete.

Meanwhile, Carrefour also made a apology after reports exposed the practice of labelling some poultry products with incorrect production dates. Standard chicken was also as the more expensive free-range variety.

Xavier Bodenes, head of food safety and quality of Carrefour China, said, "Carrefour China knew about the case that happened yesterday. Carrefour apologizes, apologizes for the case that has happened, and apologizes to our customers about this incident."

Carrefour China said it will enforce out serious punishments to people involved in this food quality case.

(CNTV.cn Match 18, 2012)