China food scandal drags in Starbucks, Burger King and McNuggets in Japan

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc came under the spotlight early this year after a supplier’s donkey meat product was found to contain fox meat."

I'd be absolutely furious if I found fox meat in my donkey meat.

No food products should be exported from china.

What scandal? Everybody knows McNuggets aren't really chicken anyway.

No food products should be exported from china.

I think it says a lot when mainland Chinese buy baby formula overseas to send back home, even though it's available locally.

Best steer clear of reconstituted offal.

If you don't know what went into it, don't order it in a restaurant.

Who knows what they put in their burgers!

Yugh!

mitoguitarman Over reaction? 1,365,000,000 healthy, vibrant people live in China. The food must have some value.

They don't eat at MacDonalds They have developed immunity

Anyone really surprised?

China cannot be trusted to supply what it is meant to be and the food it supplies has often been found to be dubious. This is no surprise but what is surprising is how many are shocked to find food from china is suspect.

I try hard not to buy things made in china and will not knowingly buy food made there.

Anyone recall the dumpling scandal, suspect gyoza, melamine milk powder ??

The world needs to re evaluate its trade with these lying, cheating, dishonest and filthy suppliers, hygiene, reliability, trust and honesty are paramount when dealing with food.

Can China be trusted ? NO !

OssanAmerica, that is very funny!

There is always a chance that what is described on a Chinese menu as "pork" or CHicken"or "beef" is actually "cat" or "dog" or I guess "fox". This is something I've heard for decades. Here in New Orleans my wife was involved as a broker representing the buyer of an old Victorian house that had been occupied by a Chinese restaurant for years. When they went to inspect the kitchen they opened the walk-in freezer and there were three or four skinned dogs hanging from hooks. The prospective buyer backed out immediately.

"Food safety is one of the top issues for Chinese consumers after a scandal in 2008 where dairy products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine led to the deaths of six infants and made many thousands sick." Didn't they get the message. Unchecked capitalism is a recipe for disaster.

Mitoguitarman: I think your statement calls for a footnote. "Healthy" and "vibrant" stated in the numbers you suggest borders on the fantastical....

Well if you insist on eating at places that are already well known for serving crap food it's hardly a shocker that the food they are serving you is .......crap.

over reaction???? They used meat that was rotting and used meat even if it was dropped on the floor. That is a bloody good reason for over-reaction me thinks. Cant we just boycott anything edible from China.

I'm not surprised at this. This is a tip of iceberg. I always think carefully when I buy things made in China.

China is a communist dictatorship, disguised as a free market economy. They hate Japan deeply, as they hate everything from Western nations. The chinese can't be trusted, they are greedy and ill hearted. Sad but true...! :(

Anyone recall the dumpling scandal, suspect gyoza, melamine milk powder ??

The dog food contaminated with aflatoxin that killed hundreds of dogs in the US, the cold pills and cough syrups that killed 100 people in South America (Panama, 2007), toothpaste flavored with anti-freeze, lead-painted Thomas the Trains, this list goes on. Why trade with China isn't halted until they clean up their act is beyond me.

Plain old greed is, again, destroying morality and decency.

Every heard of China's pig rivers? No? Check it out!

"Cant we just boycott anything edible from China." That's the trouble, isn't it. There's no label on your Starbucks chicken salad sandwich, bought in Tokyo, that says, "meat sourced from China".

You can try to avoid anything edible from China, but that means avoiding pretty much anything pre-prepared, processed, or served in restaurants (especially chains).

and what's going to happen to the Chinese regulators who should've prevented the meat from reaching the stores? I'm guessing nothing substantial, it's China afterall.

Alternative supplies of chicken have been found in Thailand and China. oh that makes me feel much safer now. ;)

usually when you find a cockroach, it means there are hundred more hiding. methink this won't be the last cockroach found in chinese food companies.

You can try to avoid anything edible from China, but that means avoiding pretty much anything pre-prepared, processed, or served in restaurants (especially chains).

It comes down to choices. Choices are never perfect and never without a cost of some kind. To avoid anything edible from China means means buying from your local farmers and paying more. It means choosing restaurants that do the same and preparing your own food when you eat at home. Cheap 'food' is usually cheap for good reason.

Fast Food Nation. Read it. Watch it. Despair.

and what's going to happen to the Chinese regulators who should've prevented the meat from reaching the stores? I'm guessing nothing substantial, it's China afterall.

Actually if it keeps going I'll bet they put a bullet in the back of the head of the folks responsible, it's China after all.

John GaltJul. 23, 2014 - 07:58AM JST No food products should be exported from china.

Actually what they're doing is standard practice in the industry, INTERNATIONALLY. I don't approve, but it is normal for expired chicken to be taken back by the suppliers, washed down, sometimes injected with a bit of water to make it pulp up and look "fresh" again and then sold back to some unsuspecting retailer. There was a huge scandal about this a few years ago, but as far as I can tell it is still normal practice.

So in summary, this isn't just a problem in China, it is an international phenomenon, and chances are that you've eaten chicken reprocessed like this many times in your life.

It sounds really offal. Well, you get what you pay of, and if there is money to be made then someone is going to find the cheapest, most horrible thing they can bleach, flavor and fry and feed it you for your yen. Enjoy!

The article mixes and matches everything it's not clear if you are talking about Japan or China is most of the cases.

gogogo,

Shanghai Husi, subsidiary of US OSI Group LLC - motto "a World of Food Solutions" - was supplying at least FamilyMart and McDonalds Japan with chicken 'solutions'.

The next time you're near a 業務スーパー, the discount supermarkets that restaurateurs shop at (the chains buy centrally), look in their freezers. The meat, fish and vegetable prices are incredibly low - and the vast bulk are sourced in China.

I doubt the directors of OSI Group, with their intimate knowledge of 'food solutions,' eat in their customers' outlets. Similarly, Wall Street has shown scant regard for animal welfare (it's all about yields) or, indeed, human welfare. Big Food, after all, sustains Big Pharma, itself brimming with 'solutions' for a better life.

This sort of thing happens all the time in China. It only became international news because companies like McDonald's and KFC were involved. If you think using expired meat is bad, look up gutter oil.

Gutter oil is a term used in China to describe illicit cooking oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, sewer drains, grease traps and slaughterhouse waste.

Every heard of China's pig rivers? No? Check it out!

And don't forget to check out "gutter oil" while you're at it.

In order to stop this sort of thing, people need to be willing to pay what food actually costs. Meat is very expensive to produce and suppliers everywhere are cutting corners.

It reminds me of when Chinese shysters were painstakingly manufacturing fake synthetic eggs because real eggs where actually much more expensive to produce.

Human beings are soooo disgusting....

Those times you get really sick and you cant pinpoint what exactly it was you ate...

Why would you buy donkey meat to begin with? Is donkey meat ok for humans?? O_0 lol

I tend to stay away from food that doesn't biodegrade after a year.....

China has learned to pass on their food items, especially vegetables, through mislabeling practices, by having their products sent to Vietnam and Thailand where they are labeled as products of those countries, then sold to Japan. You can find them in 100-yen convenience stores for similar stores.

Two unsurprising but good news that remind people to stay away from these foods and the exploitive corporations behind them: tainted food coming from China, and Star Bucks, McDonald, Burger King, etc. using questionable ingredients and foodstuff sources.

As mentioned above: no food products should be exported from China, a country of regular bird flu and other nasty outbreaks (the plague, in other news).

Infant formulas were in the headline not long ago and now poultry products. What is next?

China, where money comes first, and health is not in their list. All they want is profit. They don't care if their products contains harmful chemicals like found in toys, powdered drinks, and stuff. They don't even care if the world knew about it because they know people would still buy their craps because it's cheap! sadly that's what's happening now especially in 3rd world countries. Even here in Japan we import a lot of things and foods from China and we can't stop it because we can't produce enough for ourselves. Sad truth...

I do not understand people blaming China in this specific case. All named brands are US companies just avid of easy profits. If these US billions profit makers are not able to enforce proper processes and quality controls in China, they are unable to do it anywhere in the world.

Bon appétit!

Wow. You just can't trust anything made from China nowadays.

Wow. You just can't trust anything made from China nowadays.

Pray tell what kind of phone you are using these days.

semperfi at Jul. 23, 2014 - 07:58AM JST mitoguitarman Over reaction? 1,365,000,000 healthy, vibrant people live in China. The food must have some value.

They don't eat at MacDonalds They have developed immunity

yes, i agree #1 and 2, i had observe most of them would rather treat theirselves at Chinese Restaurant that serves chinese authentic cuisine, i just remember there were reported way back 2008"not sure accurate year" baby milk products and lipton milktea were contaminated with melamine imported from china, melamine was added to raise protein content of dairy products and deceive the consumers for short time profit, it causes malnutrition, renal and urinary problems to the victims, humans and animals

Those shady Husis...

@Frungy That can certainly happen. Even if meat is tainted you can usually super heated it and use it in packaged foods (legally). That's what happened to all the Jack-in-box beef 90s.

The article mixes and matches everything it's not clear if you are talking about Japan or China is most of the cases.

Another reason not to eat rubbish food.

You think this is bad? Take a look at these shockers! The worst thing about it is, the volume of "food" that they're producing...

http://www.thecontroversialfiles.net/2013/05/chinas-top-9-fake-foods.html

China clearly has some serious issues with food production hygiene, but it is a developing country.

Why isn't there the same public outcry when Japanese companies, especially bento makers poison hundreds of children every month or so? What's going on there? Something is not right with Japanese hygiene laws and policing. There should be more explanations.

Surely most of the blame should be on OSI?

China clearly has some serious issues with food production hygiene, but it is a developing country.

Food quality controls are struggling there to catch up to developed countries standards. Why isn't there the same public outcry when Japanese companies, especially bento makers poison hundreds of children every month or so? What's going on there? Something is not right with Japanese hygiene laws and policing. There should be more explanations.

http://naturalrevolution.org/chef-jamie-oliver-proves-mcdonalds-burgers-unfit-for-human-consumption/

A silver lining in all this is that consumer and environmental activists in China are awakening. This was exposed by "China food watchdog" after all. A related but more serious issue is environment protection, and a lot has been reported about grassroots environmental activism in China recently. After being a dirt poor country for so long, the last 20+ years of unfettered rapid development has had so many bad side effects. In Japan, Minamata disease was one of such moments that catalyzed profound changes for the better. I wish China could have learned from past experiences from other developed countries. Let's hope it is getting to a point where things will turn around for the better gradually. After all that's what a growing middle class would demand.

It isn't China but the unsupervised workers and their bosses who are uneducated in food handling that have created the scandle. In happens in Japan as well and when they are found out, they deserve to be put out of business.

Back on topic please.

They don't eat at MacDonalds They have developed immunity

Don't you see his sarcasm? Chinese citizens are suffering from food poisoning too.

And who the heck buys meat at Walmart to begin with?

but they have to complain about these Chinese, because they do not think that they send to the many poisonous products in Italy and in the world

"...had supplied expired meat to the two chains" Did the meat expire naturally or was it murdered? We have a right to know!

Anyone who eats nasty premade food like chicken nuggets and the like should not be shocked that they are eating rotten food, food dropped on the floor, food coughed all over.

It's not supposed to be that way. I don't know how strict China is about enforcing Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), though.

Best not to forget that OSI is a US owned company working under US overall management, guidelines, policies and procedures who obviously have lax monitoring and auditing procedures in place. I'm not trying to take any responsibility away from the Chinese employees and local management that have been conducting this despicable crime and are obviously criminals, and no doubt, and justifiably will be punished accordingly. Reading some of the previous posts amazes me that some people think that China is the only place that this sort of thing could go on and has gone on. Obviously there is no crime in Japan, hence the lack of need for a police force in Japan..........LOL. FYI, The Chinese police department have already arrested 5 of the local Senior Chinese management of OSI and are well into their investigation and no doubt that will lead to more arrests and actions to come. I only hope that they continue investigating up into the senior management, as well as in the US to make sure the problem hasn't stemmed from there. Knowing what I know after living and working in China for some years the people responsible will go to jail for a long time. Contrary to popular western belief about "Communist China" and restrictions on voice (which is only believed by the naive and those that haven't spent enough time here) there will be a large backlash from the Chinese population against the Chinese Government for allowing this to happen. Sorry if this give the compulsive Chinese bashers nowhere to go.

Good thing I never eat those kind of food!!

Just because this is a wholly owned subsidiary of a US company, the health authorities were too chicken to act until now. That company should not be allowed to operate again. However I think the Chinese authorities will again not have the gumption to act just because it is a US company. The health officials who allowed this should be shot or be sent to the US!

If Japan joins the TPP and goes the way the large corporations want it, there will be NO LABELLING. So, we will have no idea what stuff contains. At least now we know and we can choose.

Not sure why China is taking such a beating here in Japan with this considering all the scandals in Japan with regards to poisoning, relabeling and the like. Hmmm.. 300 this week alone in Japan but no reason given. The shock by the public that these Japanese companies use food from China is amusing me.

Anyone who eats nasty premade food like chicken nuggets and the like should not be shocked that they are eating rotten food, food dropped on the floor, food coughed all over... If you want fresh and good, you don't buy food that comes from a cardboard box.

China, where money comes first, and health is not in their list. All they want is profit.

Yes, because only Chinais like this, right? Support Fukushima farmers!!!!!!!

papigiuglio,

Cant we just boycott anything edible from China.

Now THAT would be overreaction.

Over reaction? 1,365,000,000 healthy, vibrant people live in China. The food must have some value.