The Chinese supplier to McDonald's and KFC is no longer providing meat to the companies after a Shanghai television station's report on how the supplier sold the fast-food restaurant chains expired beef and chicken.
McDonald's and KFC told
The Associated Press that they halted using products from Husi Food Co., Ltd. after the Shanghai office of the communist country's food and drug agency told them of the expired meat allegations and to suspend its use.
Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, and McDonald's Corp., released statements saying that the companies will conduct their own investigations, the AP reported.
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"Food safety is a top priority for McDonald's," the company stated on its Chinese microblog, adding that there is "zero tolerance for illegal behavior" in safety laws.
According to The New York Times, the Shanghai-based Dragon TV aired hidden camera footage of workers at Shanghai Husi allegedly using chicken meat that was two weeks past its expiration date, and beef that was as much as six months past the date.
The Dragon TV report showed workers supposedly hiding supplies of expired meat from McDonald's inspectors during an audit and then resuming its use once the audit concluded and McDonald's personnel left, reported the Times.
Taiwan-owned sandwich shop chain Dicos issued a statement as well, saying it also has stopped using Husi as a supplier for its sausage patties, reported the AP.
"This latest food-quality scandal will have a limited and transitory impact on KFC China," analysts Mei He, Yaoxin Huang and Haiyan Guo of China International Capital Corp. Ltd. said in a research report Monday,
according to Bloomberg News.
"Local management have learned painful lessons from 2012's 'instant chicken' scare and will take immediate and forceful measures to contain any adverse publicity and close the loopholes in any quality-assurance procedures," the China International Capital analysts added.
Bloomberg News noted that in December 2012 Shanghai authorities reported that it found high antibiotics levels in eight batches of chicken supplied to Yum by Liuhe Group Co. in tests conducted from 2010 to 2011 through a third-party agency. The company also supplied meat to McDonald's in China at that time as well.
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