China shuts meat producer supplying McDonald’s, KFC

In a recent bid to increase health and safety of consumers of meat, China has had to ensure its exports are healthy. Especially in the face of problems such as bird flu and horse meat scandal.

Shanghai has shut a factory of US food producer OSI Group for selling out-of-date meat to restaurant giants including McDonald's and KFC, authorities said on Monday 21 July 2014, in China's latest food safety scandal. Continue...

A Shanghai television channel, which reported the original allegations, said the workers at the plant mixed expired meat with the fresh product and deliberately misled quality inspectors from McDonald's. 

City officials closed the Shanghai Husi Food Co. factory on Sunday and seized products which allegedly used the expired meat, the Shanghai food and drug administration said in a statement. 

Police were investigating, it said, threatening "severe punishment" in future. Television footage showed workers in white suits picking up meat and hamburger patties from the floor before putting them back into processing machinery, and one employee handling out-of-date beef and calling it "stinky meat". 

McDonald's said in a statement it had "immediately" stopped using the factory's products while restaurant operator Yum separately said its KFC and Pizza Hut establishments had also halted use of its meat. 

KFC has faced food safety issues in China before, when authorities found excessive levels of antibiotics in chicken it sourced from local suppliers in 2012. 

OSI Group apologised to its customers and said it was "appalled" by the report on its factory, adding that it was "dealing with the issue directly and quickly" in a statement posted on its Chinese website. "The company has formed an investigation team, is fully cooperating with inspections being conducted by relevant, supervising government agencies, and is also conducting its own internal review," the statement added.