The Korea Herald

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McDonald’s holds open-kitchen event to highlight food hygiene

By Jung Min-kyung

Published : Nov. 19, 2019 - 16:56

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McDonald’s Korea said it invited customers to its stores nationwide Tuesday for an open-kitchen event to highlight its food hygiene and safety system.

The firm received applications last week from 1,600 customers hoping to participate in the event. The participants could visit any of McDonald’s 310 branches nationwide to survey its management of inventory, kitchen hygiene and the cooking process. 

 A McDonald’s employee demonstrates checking the oil’s acidity at a franchise branch on Tuesday. (McDonald`s)  A McDonald’s employee demonstrates checking the oil’s acidity at a franchise branch on Tuesday. (McDonald`s)

A session was held on how McDonald’s cooks its burger patties. The company explains that its grill temperature is set at 177 degrees Celsius on the bottom and 218 degrees Celsius on the top, allowing several patties to be cooked simultaneously. 

McDonald’s also showed its digital food safety system to the public for the first time. Adopted in May 2017, the system allows employees to measure the temperature of the patties while automatically recording the data on tablet computers. 

A McDonald’s employee prepares a burger in the kitchen. (McDonald’s) A McDonald’s employee prepares a burger in the kitchen. (McDonald’s)

During the event, the franchise highlighted the strict hygiene rules followed by its employees, who have to wash their hands for 30 seconds every 30 minutes and also have to measure cooking oil and wash equipment every four hours.

“We plan to show our strict management of ingredients and kitchen hygiene system to our customers and hope that it can help them use our restaurants with a sense of safety,” McDonald’s Korea CEO Cho Ju-yeon said.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)