China food scandal spreads to Japan as Burger King, Starbucks admit using tainted supplier

A toxic food scandal in China is spreading fast, dragging in US coffee chain Starbucks , Burger King and others, as well as McDonald’s products as far away as Japan.

McDonald’s and KFC’s parent Yum Brands apologised to Chinese customers on Monday after it emerged that Shanghai Husi Food Company, a unit of the US-based OSI Group, had supplied expired meat to the two chains.

On Tuesday, Starbucks said some of its cafes previously sold products containing chicken originally sourced from Shanghai Husi, a firm that was shut down on Sunday by local regulators after a television report showed staff using expired meat and picking up meat from the floor to add to the mix.

A Tokyo-based spokesman at McDonald’s Japan said the company had sourced about a fifth of its Chicken McNuggets from Shanghai Husi and had halted sales of the product on Monday. Alternative supplies of chicken have been found in Thailand and China, he added.

China’s food watchdog said it ordered regional offices to carry out spot checks on all firms which had used Shanghai Husi products, and would inspect all of parent OSI’s sites around China to see if enough has been done to ensure food safety. It said the case could be handed over to the police.

The regulator’s Shanghai branch said in a statement on Tuesday it had demanded production, quality control and sales records from OSI. It added it already ordered McDonald’s to seal over 4,500 boxes of suspected meat products and Yum’s Pizza Hut to seal over 500 boxes of beef.

Fast-food chain Burger King and Dicos, China’s third-ranked fast food chain owned by Ting Hsin International, said they would remove Shanghai Husi food products from their outlets. Pizza chain Papa John’s said on its Weibo blog that it had taken down all meat products supplied by Shanghai Husi and cut ties with the supplier.

Food safety is one of the top issues for Chinese consumers after a scandal in 2008 where dairy products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine led to the deaths of six infants and made many thousands sick. Other food scandals have hit the meat and dairy industries in recent years, and many Chinese look to foreign brands as offering higher safety standards.

China is McDonald’s third-biggest market by number of restaurants and Yum’s top market by revenue. McDonald’s is due to report quarterly earnings later on Tuesday.

The scare has stirred local consumers and become one of the most discussed topics online, with some users spreading long lists of firms thought to be tarnished.

The incident highlights the difficulty in ensuring quality and safety along the supply chain in China. Wal-Mart came under the spotlight early this year after a supplier’s donkey meat product was found to contain fox meat. It also came under fire for selling expired duck meat in 2011.

Starbucks said on its Chinese microblog site that it had no direct business relationship with Shanghai Husi, but that some of its chicken acquired from another supplier had originally come from Husi for its “Chicken Apple Sauce Panini” products. This had been sold in 13 different provinces and major cities. The company added that all the products had already been removed from its shelves.

Burger King said in a Weibo statement posted late on Monday that it had taken off its shelves all meat products supplied by Shanghai Husi Food and had launched an investigation.

Dicos said it pulled all ham products supplied by Shanghai Husi, and would stop serving its ham sandwich product for breakfast. “We will continue to carry out a probe into Shanghai Husi Food and its related firms, to understand whether or not it followed national regulations,” Dicos said in a statement.

Swedish furniture firm Ikea, which has in-store food outlets, said on Weibo that Shanghai Husi had previously been a supplier, but had not provided the firm with products since September last year. Domino’s Pizza and Doctor’s Associates’ Subway brand, which were named in online reports as being supplied meat from Shanghai Husi, said their outlets in China did not use meat products from the firm.

Yoshinoya-parent Hop Hing Group Holdings, Japanese convenience store FamilyMart and Chinese chain Wallace urged diners not to worry, and said they did not currently use any products from Shanghai Husi.