介绍:
Five detained over China expired meat scandal
Anchor:
Shanghai police have detained five people in a probe into a company that allegedly supplied expired meat to fast food chains including McDonald's and KFC.
For more on the development of the country's latest food scandal, CRI's Ding Lulu has the story.
Reporter:
The Shanghai public security bereau says the five people from the Shanghai Husi Food include a quality manager.
According to the bureau and Shanghai's food and drug administration, Shanghai Husi produced over five-thousand crates of meat products, including McNuggets, pork patties and beef steaks using out-of-date or moldy materials.
Gu Zhenhua is the deputy director of Shanghai Food and Drug Administration.
"The company had specific regulations concerning out-of-date foods. They also had clear records about them. But the regulations and the records all go against China's food safety laws."
A new report suggests that some 43 percent of Chinese netizens commenting on the country's latest food safety scandal blame poor supervision.
Their anger is directed at officials. Most netizens complained about authorities failing to discover the violation in their daily inspections of Shanghai Husi and its clients.
The Husi products were sold to brands including McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, 7-Eleven and Dicos.
McDonald's in Japan had sourced about a fifth of its Chicken McNuggets from Shanghai Husi and has been forced to halt sales of the product.
Family Mart, one of Japan's largest convenience store chains, also had to withdraw products, including their Garlic Nugget and Popcorn Chicken, after it was discovered that the meat was from Husi Food.
Isamu Nakayama is the president of the Family Mart chain.
"I am deeply sorry for causing this trouble and worry to all those involved. We do not think that there is any problem with our operating structure but the very fact that this happened means that I think that additional checks should be put into place to help reassure consumers."
Chinese regulators suspended operations of Shanghai Husi Food earlier this week.
For CRI, I'm Ding Lulu.
For more on this, CRI's Paul James spoke with Benjamin Cavender, Principal of China Market Research Group.
Back to Anchor:
Benjamin Cavender, Principal of China Market Research in Shanghai.
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