OSI Group, an Aurora, Illinois meat producer, said it would recall all products processed at a Shanghai plant at the center of a reported safety scandal that has dragged in McDonald’s in mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan.
“To help rebuild the trust of customers and consumers, as well as to cooperate with the official investigatory process, we are compelled to withdraw all products manufactured by Shanghai Husi from the marketplace,” OSI said in a statement yesterday.
An undercover Shanghai TV reporter posing as a worker at Shanghai Husi, the OSI unit involved in the alleged scandal, filmed colleagues combining expired meat with fresh cuts and then lying to McDonald’s inspectors, Chinese media reported earlier this month. Five senior Husi executives are said to have been detained. Sales of out-of-date meat were reported to have gone on for years.
Besides McDonald’s, Husi also reportedly sold meat to KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants operated by Yum!.Yum! is said to have found another supplier.
McDonald’s, by contrast, was criticized in China’s media last week after it said it would only switch its Shanghai sourcing to another plant in the country run by OSI.
The big U.S. fast-food chain has also been getting hit with bad press in Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post on Saturday in a front page headline said, “McDonald’s Told To Tell the Truth” by a consumer council chief about whether it knowingly sold tainted food in Hong Kong. McDonald’s had admitted to selling raw meat from Husi in Hong Kong but only did so after the government there suspended Husi imports, the newspaper reported. Hong Kong authorities have sealed off 59 tons of Husi products from the mainland, all from McDonald's.
The South China Morning Post also yesterday ran another article inside of the newspaper with the headline, “McDonald’s – Are We Still Lovin' It?” An informal survey found mixed results but quoted a nanny saying, “I think I will steer clear of McDonald’s in the future.”
McDonald’s was still limiting sales of several chicken items on its menu in Shanghai today.
McDonald’s New York-traded shares edged up 0.4% on Friday, their first gain since the alleged OSI meat scandal in Shanghai was reported a week ago. OSI is privately held.
-- Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
