Japanese Supermarket Chain Newly Affected by Chinese Meat Scam
TOKYO – The 24-hour Japanese convenience chain FamilyMart announced on Wednesday it had stopped buying chicken from the Chinese company Husi, which was shut down after selling meat past its expiry date.
FamilyMart was the second Japanese company hit by the Chinese meat scam after McDonald’s subsidiary in Japan announced on Tuesday it would stop serving chicken McNuggets, which were also supplied by Husi.
McDonald’s Holdings Japan, which last year imported 4,300 tons of McNuggets from the Shanghai-based meat processing firm, announced it will resume chicken sales in its 3,300 restaurants in Japan on Wednesday, after finding new suppliers in China and Thailand.
The meat scandal has also led to the withdrawal of some of the most popular items on menus of fast food chains Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Burger King and Dicos in China, all of which bought meat supplies from Husi.
The fraud was uncovered last week in a report on Chinese television channel Dragon TV, which led health authorities to shut down the Husi factory in Shanghai.
The Shanghai channel revealed on Sunday that Husi had consistently falsified meat expiration dates.
The TV released footage filmed at the Husi plant showing how chicken discarded after routine checks were repeatedly reprocessed to pass quality controls.
The report, made with a hidden camera and undercover journalists, also showed employees picking up meat from the floor and throwing it into the grinder to make hamburgers.
A Husi director told the journalists top company executives had allowed personnel to use expired meat to make hamburgers.
Husi is the Chinese subsidiary of the OSI Group, a food processing company with its main U.S. headquarters in Aurora, Illinois, that has issued a statement apologizing for “the problems caused or if any consumer has been affected.”
This is the latest case regarding food insecurity in China, one of the most serious problems affecting the country, where irregularities of this kind are on the rise leading to growing public concern.
This is not the first time that foreign fast food chains have been affected.
In 2012, KFC was involved in another such scandal when it was found buying chicken with excessive levels of antibiotics in Shanghai for two years despite being aware of it, according to local authorities.
TOKYO – The 24-hour Japanese convenience chain FamilyMart announced on Wednesday it had stopped buying chicken from the Chinese company Husi, which was shut down after selling meat past its expiry date.FamilyMart was the second Japanese company hit by the Chinese meat scam after McDonald’s subsidiary in Japan announced on Tuesday it would stop serving chicken McNuggets, which were also supplied by Husi.
McDonald’s Holdings Japan, which last year imported 4,300 tons of McNuggets from the Shanghai-based meat processing firm, announced it will resume chicken sales in its 3,300 restaurants in Japan on Wednesday, after finding new suppliers in China and Thailand.
The meat scandal has also led to the withdrawal of some of the most popular items on menus of fast food chains Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Burger King and Dicos in China, all of which bought meat supplies from Husi.
The fraud was uncovered last week in a report on Chinese television channel Dragon TV, which led health authorities to shut down the Husi factory in Shanghai.
The Shanghai channel revealed on Sunday that Husi had consistently falsified meat expiration dates.
The TV released footage filmed at the Husi plant showing how chicken discarded after routine checks were repeatedly reprocessed to pass quality controls.
The report, made with a hidden camera and undercover journalists, also showed employees picking up meat from the floor and throwing it into the grinder to make hamburgers.
A Husi director told the journalists top company executives had allowed personnel to use expired meat to make hamburgers.
Husi is the Chinese subsidiary of the OSI Group, a food processing company with its main U.S. headquarters in Aurora, Illinois, that has issued a statement apologizing for “the problems caused or if any consumer has been affected.”
This is the latest case regarding food insecurity in China, one of the most serious problems affecting the country, where irregularities of this kind are on the rise leading to growing public concern.
This is not the first time that foreign fast food chains have been affected.
In 2012, KFC was involved in another such scandal when it was found buying chicken with excessive levels of antibiotics in Shanghai for two years despite being aware of it, according to local authorities.
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