Food negligence

Chinese officials said on Wednesday, July 23, that the country's food inspectors seized 1,270 tons of out-of-date raw meat and meat products from the Shanghai Husi Food Company, the Chinese unit of US-based food supplier, OSI Group.

On Sunday, July 20, Shanghai-based Dragon TV broadcast a hidden-camera footage, which showed plant workers using expired chicken and beef to make burger patties and chicken products. Zhang Hui, the company's quality manager, later confessed that they had used rotten meat in its products for many years.

Shanghai Husi said it was "appalled" by the allegations and was cooperating with the Chinese authorities as well as conducting its own investigation.

"The company is committed to sharing the investigation results with the public and taking all necessary actions based on those results," it said. "Our company management believes this to be an isolated event but takes full responsibility for the situation and will take appropriate actions swiftly and comprehensively," it added.

However, Yan Zuqiang, the city's chief food inspector, told the Shanghai Daily newspaper that the "illegal practice was not an individual act but rather an organized arrangement by the company."

McDonald's and KFC have issued statements saying they had "stopped using meat from the firm." Burger King, Starbucks and the Papa John's pizza chain have also ceased getting supplies from Shanghai Husi. The scare also spread to Japan, where 20 percent of the meat for McDonald's chicken nuggets comes from Husi.

Food monitoring

Nina Banspach, a press officer at Germany's Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, told DW that she had "no information that concerned products had been exported to Europe or Germany."

"Generally, products from China sold in Germany must be in accordance with the legal regulation in Europe and Germany. Producers and traders guarantee this by self-monitoring," Banspach said. The official, however, admitted that the surveillance of food items coming out of China involved risks.

"Products which are imported from China in a high amount are monitored more often. Furthermore, if products from China have been the cause of any complaint, they are analyzed even more."

Bill Marler, a Seattle-based consumer lawyer, is more critical of food security mechanisms employed by Beijing. "Although China is by outward appearance an incredibly modern and vibrant society, it just doesn't have a long history of regulatory control, of checks and balances, where somebody is making the decision, ‘If the meat falls on the floor, should I put it back in?" he told the media.

Wu Heng, a Chinese blogger and author, agrees: "Manufacturers, who are notified well in advance by food inspectors, bring out the best samples for examination. It is not a good way to monitor the food quality," Wu told DW, adding that such shortcomings and the incompetence of inspectors have led to a series of food quality issues in the country.

Many scandals

The meat scandal is another setback for Yum Brands, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut. The company has been trying hard to expand and revamp its image in the East Asian economic giant. In 2012, the firm's sales dipped in China after a report claimed that two of its suppliers were providing chicken meat with excessive levels of antibiotics.

It took quite some time for Yum Brands to start recovering from the scandal, but a bird flu outbreak in the Asian country further dented the sales. The company, however, started to perform better and its sales saw a 9 percent jump at its Chinese outlets in the first three months of this year.

"Yum China will look at the final results of the government inspection and reserves the right to take legal action against the OSI Group," it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Food safety measures in China have often been criticized by local and international consumer rights groups. In 2008, six infants died and thousands more were hospitalized with kidney problems from chemically-adulterated milk.