A Wal-Mart store in Shenzhen, China, is facing accusations of failing to comply with food safety standards, prompting an official inquiry, according to Xinhua news agency.

The report said a Wal-Mart employee at the branch in Honghu claimed that staff in the store's deli section used or sold expired ingredients for cooking.

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The employee alleged the store used old cooking oil to fry chicken for sale to shoppers and sold meat past its "sell-by" date.

He added that rice sold at the store had insects and worms.

The employee, who claimed to have worked at Wal-Mart for seven years, presented a video of the alleged violations, according to Xinhua.

Wal-Mart said it carried out its own inspection at the store and found no evidence to back the employee's allegations.

It also mentioned that authorities who performed a series of checks at the branch had not found any violation.

The U.S. retail giant promised to cooperate with local investigators and to take "immediate actions" to correct any problems uncovered.

The Shenzhen Market Supervisory Administration ordered the probe, but the results were still pending, Xinhua said.

The report said law enforcement officers accompanied by journalists searched the store and found that staff manually recorded the shelf lives of some ingredients.

Xinhua said handwritten expiration dates can be easily tampered, allowing supermarkets to sell expired products.

However, an official of the local food safety authority said that no regulations were in place on when frying oil must be replaced or whether mixing new oil with older oil was prohibited.

The allegations against Wal-Mart's follow similar claims against other multinational companies such as McDonald's and Yum Brands, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut.

An undercover expose on meat processing company Shanghai Husi Food Co. Ltd. uncovered food safety violations in its factory, forcing McDonald's and Yum, two of its major customers, to issue an apology.

TagsWal-Mart Stores, China food safety, China meat scandal, Mcdonalds, Yum! Brands, Shanghai Husi