Shanghai Husi exported expired chicken to Japan

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-07-23

An inspector with the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration
seals a Shanghai Husi Food computer, July 22. (Photo/Xinhua)

After revelations emerged on July 20 that Shanghai Husi Food had reprocessed expired meat to sell to fast food chains in China, the company has now been found to have exported re-processed expired chicken to Japan, reported our Chinese language sister newspaper China Times.

Fast food companies in Japan such as MacDonald's, KFC, and Starbucks have all been affected by the expired meat.

Radio and Television Shanghai reported that Shanghai Husi, the Chinese unit of the US OSI Group, mixed fresh chicken with expired chicken and successfully fooled the quality control department at McDonald's.

Husi closed its factory on July 20, and the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration seized all the meat therein.

According to the English-language Shanghai Daily, in addition to McDonald's, KFC, and Starbucks, other food chains in Japan like Burger King, Papa John's Pizza, Subway, and Pizza Hut imported meat products from Husi as well.

McDonald's Japan said that 20% of its chickens is imported from Husi. About 500 branches in Kanto region were affected and stopped selling chicken nuggets. McDonald's Japan is looking for a new source of chicken and will start selling chicken nuggets again no later than July 23.

McDonald's had originally been scheduled to hold a press conference on July 23 to launch new summer products, with singers from a popular singing competition show scheduled to attend, however, the press conference was cancelled on the evening of July 22.

Incidents of adulterated foods have rocked consumer confidence in China over the last couple of years. Earlier this year, the US retailer Walmart's supermarket in China was found to have used fox meat labelled as donkey meat. Walmart subsequently announced that it would strengthen its quality inspection on Chinese food suppliers. The Husi incident may have a similar effect in Japan.

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