If you are traveling to China and plan to grab food items with beef, pork and chicken at McDonald's in the country's biggest cities, you might as well be prepared to get burgers with fish patties instead.
Three McDonald's outlets in Beijing and Shanghai have stopped selling most of their meat products, according to Reuters, and microblog postings suggest that McDonalds outlets in Tianjin and Wuhan now also have limited menu following the scandal embroiling the giant food chain's food supplier OSI Group LLC, the parent company of Shanghai Husi Food, which supplies meat products, lettuce, corn and eggs to McDonalds outlets in China.
Last week, Chinese authorities arrested the head of Shanghai Husi Food along with four other people and suspended the company's plant operation following media reports that revealed the company was selling rotten meat. An undercover investigation by a local TV station found that Husi's processing plant changes production dates of their meat products.
Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration deputy director Gu Zhenghua said that the controversial conducts at Husi appear to be not just the doings of a few individuals but are rather company-wide practices. An employee at Husi told crews of Dragon TV that using out of date meat is part of the company's official policy.
"We found that some of the illegal conduct was not that of certain individuals but was an arrangement organized by the company," Zhenghua told the Xinhua News Agency.
A spokesperson for McDonald's in China said that the limited number of food items that are currently available in the menu is the result of the company withdrawing all products from Husi since Friday.
"We are now only offering a limited menu in our restaurants around the country," the spokesperson said adding that some McDonald's outlets may resume offering its full menu by early August. "We are leveraging our network of suppliers to resume our full menu offerings."
OSI said that in an effort to rebuild trust, it is recalling all the products that were manufactured by its Shanghai plant. It has also replaced its management team in China. Sheldon Lavin, the chief executive officer of the OSI group also made a public apology.
"What happened at Husi Shanghai is completely unacceptable," Lavin said. "I will not try and defend it or explain it. It was terribly wrong, and I am appalled that it ever happened in the company that I own."
