SEOUL, Oct. 1 (UPI) — BR Korea, the South Korean operator of Dunkin’ Donuts, has asked police to investigate the authenticity of a video purporting to show unsanitary conditions in one of its factories.
Korean Broadcasting System aired a video on Wednesday, reportedly taken by an employee this summer at a Dunkin factory in Anyang, south of Seoul.
The footage showed ventilators with oil stains. Dough beneath the vent hood also showed orange and yellow droplets, which the whistleblower said fell from the hood. Frying machines were also covered with black substances.
The news coverage caused the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to inspect the factory. The share price of BR Korea’s parent company, SPC Samlip, went down 1.42 percent Thursday, and by 1.04 percent Friday.
BR Korea CEO Do Se-ho issued an official apology Thursday, promising to comply with sanitary standards and supply safe products through strict hygiene measures.
However, the company later said that the video might have been faked by an employee and asked police to investigate.
According to BR Korea, its CCTV footage on July 28 showed an employee deliberately hitting the fryer so as to make droplets fall on the uncooked dough.
The company said that the employee in the surveillance video is the leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Union’s branch in Dunkin’.
The umbrella union is at odds with BR Korea’s sister company, Paris Baguette. Truck drivers belonging to KCTU have gone on strike over the past month.
“The aired video footage might lose credibility if the trade union head faked the situation. We expect that police probes will reveal what happened,” a BR Korea representative told UPI News Korea.
The KCTU branch head told local newspaper Chosun Ilbo that BR Korea’s accusation does not make sense.