Alibaba’s fresh produce company Hema found changing labels

Giant online retailer Alibaba’s fresh produce arm, Hema, has been accused of changing the labels of its products to show a later in-stock date. After a review was carried out into the matter, the manager of the firm’s Shanghai branch was fired. The incident was first reported on November 15th when a consumer noticed that a shop worker was changing the dates on packets of fresh carrots so that stock previously labelled as in-stock on 9th November was now labelled as being in-stock on 15th November.  When police officers later investigated the affair, the firm admitted to making the changes to its product labelling on its boxes of carrots. The police officers ordered the company to remove all of the boxes on which the labels had been changed. Hema has since invited customers to service as quality inspectors at its 22 stores in Shanghai.