Starbucks must buck up or lose face

Two decades ago, Starbucks, the world's leading coffee chain, opened its first branch in China, in Beijing's bustling Guomao area.

Since then, the chain has set up more than 5,400 branches in more than 200 cities across the country, the biggest and fastest growing overseas market for the beverage giant.

On its official Chinese website, Starbucks claims to adhere to a "Gold Standard" — the highest for the industry — in food safety .

If that were true, however, the chain would not have got mired in one scandal after another in half a year. A Starbucks outlet in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, was recently fined 10,000 yuan (＄1,498) for selling expired coffee powder; a few days ago two stores in Wuxi of Jiangsu province were found using expired ingredients in their coffee, besides manually switching the consume-by label on the products; some months ago a netizen raised hell after finding a live cockroach in his coffee, but the company denied it.

Food safety is central to every edible product. Without a solid commitment to food safety, the reputation and popularity a product enjoys can become a thing of the past in seconds. Many local brands are already waiting to capture the market share by offering better flavors at more reasonable prices.

In the face of such competition, Starbucks is doing its image no good by being casual about its approach to food safety. It is already in a perilous position with its stock down by about 35 percent so far this year. If the coffee giant wants to improve its image in the world's second largest economy, it has to buck up and show due respect to its customers.

The author is a writer with China Daily.