Monday, July 21, 2014

American-owned company in China in hot seat

An American-owned company that processes chicken in China for McDonald’s and KFC is in the hot seat over allegations by a whistleblower who shot an undercover video.

OSI Group of Aurora, Illinois, says it’s investigating and will not tolerate the situation exposed in the video, including 12-day-old chicken being cleared for processing into nuggets.

“Company management was appalled by the report and is dealing with the issue directly and quickly,” OSI Group said by way of a press release.

“The company has formed an investigation team, is fully cooperating with inspections being conducted by relevant, supervising government agencies and is also conducting its own internal review,” the company says.

We are “committed to sharing the investigation results with the public and taking all necessary action based on those results,” the company says.

McDonald's and KFC-parent Yum apologized to customers and stopped serving products purchased from the supplier on Monday after Chinese regulators shut down the Shanghai Husi plant following the TV report, according to Reuters news agency.

The plant supplies about 500 of McDonald’s 2,000 outlets in China.

“We are committed to the highest standards of food safety and our customers are always our number one priority,” Becca Hary, director of global media relations for McDonald’s, told Meatingplace Magazine.


“If confirmed, the practices outlined in the (television station) report are completely unacceptable to McDonald’s. We are no longer serving product from the facility.”