A e-commerce platform with five million followers has been exposed for selling packaged moldy prunes. The market supervision department has already initiated an investigation.

“Workers at the factory pulled moldy plums from the warehouse, cleaned the white mold off with water, then dried them outside before directly packaging and selling them.” Recently, Zhang Peng (a pseudonym), who previously worked at Hangzhou Zile Food Technology Co., Ltd., reported to The Paper’s public interaction platform “Service Pai” that during his employment, he discovered the company was washing moldy plums and selling them in bags, and that the sales volume was substantial.

The implicated plums were previously sold through an e-commerce flagship store, which currently has over 2 million followers.

According to Zhang Peng, the company’s products are sold exclusively online, with no offline sales channels. The company operates two brands, “Tianzi Le” and “Shangqia,” which have 2.06 million and 3.66 million followers on Douyin, respectively, totaling over 5 million fans.

In response, a representative from Hangzhou Zile Food Technology Co., Ltd. told The Paper that the moldy plums were due to issues in certain batches during storage, which were concealed by management. “The company has suspended relevant personnel and is cooperating with market supervision authorities for rectification. We will only resume production once it is confirmed that there are no issues.”

Zhang Peng, who has 13 years of experience in the food industry, started working at Hangzhou Zile Food Technology Co., Ltd. on September 19, responsible for production management in the workshop. “Once I officially started on September 20, I discovered illegal activities,” he said. That day, he saw factory workers bringing over 10,000 pounds of plums from the warehouse for processing and packaging. “I noticed white mold on the plums, but they still washed them with water, let them dry outside, and continued packaging them.”

Zhang Peng recorded some videos of the operations. In the videos he provided, company staff claimed, “They have been processed for a month (the moldy plums)” and stated, “After washing, if some are still moldy, they need a second wash.” When Zhang asked whether they were concerned about someone leaking this information, a staff member replied, “Long-term employees hope the boss is in a good mood to make money, so why would they leak it?”

Zhang Peng’s photographs showed plums with white mold spots that were still being cleaned and sold.

He reported the situation to company leadership but received no resolution. “I worked for a total of 5 days. When I resigned, I told the HR manager that I couldn’t engage in illegal activities. Selling moldy plums goes against my will and conscience. If they continued this practice, I would resign; otherwise, I would stay. The boss did not respond and directly processed my resignation.”

Additionally, Zhang revealed that during his employment, he discovered the company was altering production dates. “This company is essentially a repackaging factory; some products are sourced from other processing factories and then directly packaged in their own bags for sale. You can never tell how long they’ve been produced; the production date only reflects the day they were packaged.”

Zhang noted that all food has a shelf life, and altering production dates could lead consumers to incorrectly judge the expiration time, “leading them to consume outdated products unknowingly.”

After leaving the company, on September 25, Zhang reported this situation to the Hangzhou 12315 hotline. Progress showed that on September 26, the Lin’an District Market Supervision Administration in Hangzhou visited the implicated company for evidence collection and inspection, and on October 11, the market supervision bureau filed a case. “The bureau indicated that they value this issue and are prioritizing it, but there have been no results so far.”

On September 30, Zhang exposed the situation of the company selling moldy plums on his social media account, stating, “Food safety is no small matter.”

The involved e-commerce company has over 5 million fans. According to business registration information, Hangzhou Zile Food Technology Co., Ltd. was established on April 26, 2023. Its business scope includes: technical services, technical development; online sales of food (only pre-packaged food); procurement of primary agricultural products; initial processing of edible agricultural products; and sale of unprocessed nuts and dried fruits.

Zhang stated that the company operates two brands, named “Tianzi Le” and “Shangqia,” with the plum products branded under “Shangqia.” “The company only does e-commerce and has no offline sales channels. To enter physical stores, one needs to provide documents regarding the production environment, qualification files, and sanitary conditions for the factory; the standards of the factory do not meet the requirements for shelf placement.”

The Paper noted that the Douyin account “Tianzi Le Food Flagship Store” has 2.067 million followers and mainly sells pine nuts, cashews, and other nut products, with sales of 129,000. The “Shangqia” snack flagship store under the company has 3.666 million followers and also primarily sells nut products.

Notably, the plums previously sold by “Tianzi Le Food Flagship Store” have already been removed from sale.

“If I hadn’t exposed this, they wouldn’t have taken them down.” Zhang provided screenshots of the plums before they were taken down, showing past consumer comments stating, “Not very clean, lots of dirty ones,” “Too wet, opened it three days later and found mold inside, had to throw it away,” “Ate a few only to find moldy plums.”

On April 22, 2024, Hangzhou Zile Food Technology Co., Ltd. was penalized by the market supervision bureau in Lin’an District for engaging in chicken jerky production activities beyond the allowed categories of food production licenses.

In response to these occurrences, on December 15, Zhao, the manager of the administrative office at Hangzhou Zile Food Technology Co., Ltd., told The Paper that there had indeed been instances of selling moldy plums, and comprehensive rectifications have been carried out. “This batch of agricultural products was sourced from various farmers. One batch had issues because it lacked additives during storage, but management concealed this fact. We are currently suspending and withholding pay from the relevant personnel.” Zhao stated that the company undertook a series of rectifications afterwards and cooperated with the inspection by the Lin’an District market supervision authorities. “There was a period when we halted production to implement these corrections; we only resumed production after the inspection confirmed there were no issues.”

The Lin’an District Market Supervision Administration in Hangzhou is conducting an investigation.

On December 18, The Paper journalist contacted the Lin’an District Market Supervision Administration in Hangzhou, and relevant staff indicated that an investigation has been initiated against the implicated company, but there are currently no results.