OSI applied laxer food safety standards in China: report

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-07-26

McDonald's has declared that it is cutting all ties with Shanghai
Husi as a supplier. (Photo/CNS)

The Shanghai Husi expired meat scandal has highlighted the low health food safety standards and regulations its parent company employs in China compared to other parts of the world, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Owned by Illinois-based OSI Group, Husi has been shut down by Chinese food authorities pending an investigation after it was discovered that the company had been supplying products tainted with reprocessed stale meat to fast food chains across the country such as McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Dicos.

The OSI Group operates more than 50 food processing plants in 17 countries and distributes raw, semi-cooked, and fully cooked chicken, as well as beef, and pork products to 85 countries around the world.

According to a report by the Xinhua Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper operated by the Jiangsu committee of the Communist Party, the scandal reflects the different food safety standards OSI applies in China compared to the US and Europe.

In the US and Spain, for example, OSI uses X-rays to detect foreign objects in food products. The group also implements employee safety programs in Spain, where there are training workshops on emergency treatment for staff accidents. The group has no similar programs or safety nets in China.

OSI also has standardized animal welfare guidelines, and chemical and pesticide specifications in the US, Europe, the Philippines and India, but not in China.

In the environmental responsibility sphere, OSI has installed water, energy and waste recycling processes in other countries, but in Chinese factories there are only water recycling devices in place.

Sheldon Lavin, OSI's CEO, chairperson and owner, once boasted about OSI's unique culture, saying it is "very family-oriented" and enjoys very little "turnover." The newspaper report said that it is probably this type of trusting management style that led to different standards being applied in different countries, allowing subsidiaries like Husi to fall through the cracks.

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