- A Starbucks store in China has been fined for selling expired goods, China Economic Daily reported.
- The incident is the latest setback for the coffee chain in its second-largest market.
- Months earlier, a worker at another Starbucks store was spotted replacing expiry date labels.
A Starbucks store in China has been fined for selling expired goods, in the latest setback for the company in its second-largest market in the world, China Economic Daily reported on Tuesday.
The branch in Hangzhou city was slapped with a fine of 10,000 yuan ($1,500) last month after inspectors found that it was stocking expired coffee powder on its shelves, per the outlet.
News of the fine immediately sparked a backlash online among social media users who said they had lost faith in the coffee chain amid its problems in the country.
On the Twitter-like Weibo platform, the hashtag "Starbucks fined for expired coffee" has gone on to receive close to 100 million views.
"They're expensive and they can't even guarantee food safety. Who dares drink their coffee anymore?" one Weibo user commented.
"There have been too many issues with Starbucks. Have they not been fined enough?" another user wrote.
Last December, two Starbucks outlets in the Chinese city of Wuxi were found to have used expired cocoa liquid, matcha liquid, and cream — and deliberately covered it up, The Beijing News reported following an undercover investigation.
According to the news outlet, an employee was spotted removing the expiry label sticker on a bottle of matcha liquid and replacing it with a new one to fraudulently "extend" its shelf life.
The two shops forfeited 699,300 yuan in "illegally collected proceeds" and were fined 674,100 yuan, per South China Morning Post (SCMP).
In March, Starbucks was also mired in controversy after a customer claimed in a viral online post that their drink came with a live cockroach inside. At the time, Starbucks China responded on its Weibo account that no pest infestation had been found in its stores and that the customer had placed their drinks order through a third-party delivery platform.
With more than 5,400 stores across 200 cities, China is Starbucks' second-largest market outside the United States, per SCMP.
Starbucks did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.