McDonald’s Hong Kong to face probe over meat imports from rotten food plant
Full disclosure needed from fast-food chain as investigators probe whether it knowingly sold potentially tainted food to Hong Kong public
PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 July, 2014, 11:45pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 July, 2014, 12:28am
Michael de Waal-Montgomery and Danny Lee
McDonald's is accused of "concealing events". Photo: Reuters
An official probe is under way into the McDonald's "rotten meat" scandal, focusing on whether the fast-food giant knowingly sold potentially tainted food to the Hong Kong public over a four-day period this week.
Food safety sources said that the chain only acknowledged it had imported raw meat from the scandal-hit Shanghai plant of the Husi Food Company after the government forced its hand by suspending all imports from Husi's mainland operations.
The Centre for Food Safety is conducting the probe and has taken samples for testing.
Officials revealed that over the past year, Hong Kong McDonald's branches had imported 380 tonnes of chicken and pork from the Shanghai Husi Food Company. It's not clear when the meat was sold. Officials are investigating whether the fast-food giant breached the public health and municipal services ordinance.
Consumer Council chief executive Gilly Wong Fung-han said McDonald's should "provide full disclosure of its sourcing arrangements and records for public information".
After denying since Monday there were any problems with food safety, McDonald's admitted publicly on Thursday night that it had imported chicken and pork from the Shanghai plant.
The chain suspended sales of popular menu offerings including chicken nuggets and McSpicy burgers late on Thursday.
Members of the Democratic Party staged a protest outside the customs department headquarters yesterday calling for a full investigation to ensure that consumers were protected.
"The information McDonald's announced to the public on Monday and then changed [on Thursday] is contradictory," said the party's deputy consumer rights spokesman, Andrew Chiu Ka-yin. Chiu believed McDonald's had violated the Trade Descriptions Ordinance and had deliberately concealed events in an attempt to deceive consumers.
He added: "Consumers have based their decisions on whether to eat at McDonald's this week based on the Monday statement. The Monday announcement was reflected to the public by all the media, but it was incorrect information."
Several calls to McDonald's Hong Kong asking why the chain changed its story this past week went unanswered. A company spokesman said it had stopped importing ingredients from the affected Husi supplier.
"All food supplied in McDonald's at the present time is safe because it has passed safety checks and regulations."
McDonald's said its restaurants in Japan had stopped selling products made with chicken from China. More than 3,000 restaurants across Japan had also halted imports of chicken products from the country, the chain said, as it switched to distributors in Thailand "to address the concerns of our customers".
McDonald's China rallied round Husi's owner, the OSI Group. It said it would source ingredients from an OSI-owned Husi food plant, Henan Husi, in Henan province, instead of the Shanghai plant.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
