Editor's Note: The thinly disguised official corruption of Ukraine comes through in this straightforward news article about state regulators' accusations against McDonald's, the international fast food giant.
McDonald’s restaurants in Ukraine are being accused by a state regulatory agency of skimping on their servings of french fries and violating other food industry regulations over the last three months.
Ukrainian Consumer Rights Protection Directorate (UCRPD) chief Klavdia Sytnik said her inspectors found that the two McDonald’s outlets in Kyiv and one in Kharkiv open when the probe began June 17 served up portions of fries weighing on average 25 percent less than the McDonald’s standard of 110 grams per serving of a small order of fries.
“You multiply that by 1,000 customers a day, and that’s a lot of stolen potatoes,” she said.
A McDonald’s spokesman denied the charge.
The 110-gram figure for a standard serving filed by the company when its first restaurants in Ukraine opened in May represented weight before frying, said Steen Puggaard, senior marketing and communications manager for McDonald’s in Ukraine.
“Although we did submit to the Consumer Rights Directorate a standard portion weight, you have to understand we are not selling so many grams of potatoes but a bag of McDonald’s french fries,'” Puggaard said.
The consumer watchdogs’ complaints don’t end with spuds.
Government lab technicians also found that in Kyiv and Kharkiv, McDonald’s was serving ice cream products containing 2 percent of fat, as opposed to the 10 percent the company promised in documents filed before opening the restaurants.
In addition, UCPRD inspectors cited the company for failing to place weighing scales in the kitchen, neglecting to list the weight of food items on its wall menus, lacking a customer complaint book and not labeling its food products in Ukrainian.
The inspectors also accused McDonald’s of permitting irregularities in importing food products. ‘We asked to see their certificates of quality. They didn’t have them,’ stated Kharkhiv inspector Vyacheslav Prokopenko in a telephone interview. ‘Nor did we find certificates when we came back months later.’
Puggaart said McDonald’s has fully complied with customs regulations.
‘Of course all of our foods are imported here legally with the appropriate certificates of quality,’ he said. ‘We faxed them copies immediately after the inspections.’
UCPRD inspectors visited the McDonald’s outlets in Kyiv and Kharkiv several times between June and September.
The purported violations became public on Oct. 15 when the TSN news program, carried by the Studio 1+1 television company, broadcast a report on McDonald’s problems with state inspectors.
Puggaard said the world’s leading fast food corporation is attempting to comply with all Ukrainian regulations. But Sytnik, who said her agency launched the probe on specific orders of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, charged that McDonald’s has failed to respond to violations uncovered by government inspectors.
Whatever their difficulties in communicating, Sytnik and Puggaard appear to want the same thing. ‘Our organization is financed by the Ukrainian taxpayer, and it is our job to protect the consumer,’ said Sytnik. ‘We are ready to work with McDonald’s.’
‘We want to work with the consumer rights people,’ said Puggaard.
