McDonalds, KFC & Pizza Hut Use Expired Meat for Patties & Nuggets in China; More Restaurants Included

The fast food industry has been rocked by another scandal, and this time, it involves the meat used in hamburgers, chicken nuggets and other meat-based products.

Dragon Television did an expose about the Aurora, Illinois-based OSI Group's Shanghai Husi Food Co. An unnamed quality control manager told the local news outlet that they have been selling meat past the sell-by date to their suppliers, Quartz reported.

Although he claimed to have no idea when the practice started, he is sure that the practice has the approval of at least above the factory director's level and that the policy has been in place for years. He added, "If we're making beef patties for example, we're allowed to add substandard raw materials if we have them."

The expose has since prompted the Shanghai Public Security Bureau to investigate the claims, and according to the state-run People's Daily, five people have been placed under criminal detention.

Nonetheless, the impact was beyond client-supplier relationship. Fast food restaurants like KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Papa Johns International, Starbucks, IKEA, 7-Eleven, and McDonald's in Japan were clearly affected with the news. OSI Group has since issued an apology of sorts in a statement yesterday and claimed it was an isolated event.

Meanwhile, McDonald's stood by their supplier. In a separate statement, the burger chain said, "We and our suppliers have a decades-long proven track record of providing safe, quality food to our customers worldwide," the Oak Brook, Illinois-based chain, said in a statement. "Husi is taking swift action by investigating what happened and overhauling its safety procedures. We have been in direct contact with OSI's global leaders; as an added assurance of uncompromised safety, they are sending their top food safety experts to China to provide expertise on operations."

Bloomberg said that McDonald's reaction was in complete opposite to that of Yum! Brands Inc, who owns the Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell chains and is considered to be the largest fast food business in the mainland. The company has terminated its business relationship with OSI following a government probe regarding the altered expiration dates of meat products.

Yum since said, "It is difficult to believe and completely unacceptable that the management of Shanghai Husi, a division of OSI, would oversee and organize illegal and dishonest operations. Yum China unequivocally condemns these actions."

Yum also stressed that they do not rely solely on Shanghai Husi. The Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum added in its statement, "This supplier is not a major supplier of Yum China. KFC and Pizza Hut have arranged alternative suppliers and we do not anticipate disruption to KFC restaurants."

As for the fast food chains in Japan, they will have to rely on local suppliers as Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said yesterday that the country has suspended its food imports, Bloomberg added.