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 The five detained include the head of the company - Shanghai Husi
Food Co Ltd, a unit of U.S.-based OSI Group LLC - and the firm's
quality manager, the police said in an online statement. It gave no
other details.
McDonald's, Yum Brands Inc, the parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut,
and coffee chain Starbucks Corp are among global brands to have
pulled products from their outlets after it emerged that Shanghai
Husi supplied expired meat to clients in China, as well as Japan, in
the latest in a series of food safety scandals in the country.
Earlier, the official Xinhua news agency cited the Shanghai food and
drug watchdog as saying that food safety violations at Shanghai Husi
were company-led rather than the acts of individuals. "We discovered
that some of the company's illegal behavior was not the behavior of
individuals, but rather an organized arrangement by the company,"
Xinhua reported Gu Zhenhua, deputy head of the Shanghai Municipal
Food and Drug Administration, as saying.
Illinois-based OSI has said it was "appalled" and was investigating
the matter after a Chinese TV report on Sunday showed staff at its
Shanghai Husi facility using expired meat and picking up meat from
the floor to add to the mix.
An official at OSI in China reached by telephone on Wednesday
declined to comment further.
DIFFERENT STANDARDS
Huang Denggang, 20, worked as a night cleaner at the Husi plant, a
modern warehouse compound in a Shanghai suburb, for more than a
year, but doesn't plan to return when it re-opens because of
lower-than-expected pay and a medical claim.
He told Reuters on Wednesday that he saw workers pick up raw meat
from the floor and put it back into processing containers.
"I've seen them pick meat pieces off the floor, though I can't say I
know anything about expired meat because I'm not involved in that
part of the factory," he said at a local job agency where he works
during the day. He showed Reuters his Husi payslip as verification
of his employment there.
"The leader didn't say anything when you throw it back. When the raw
meat falls out of a container from inside, you just pick it up and
put it back," he recalled, adding he also saw some workers not wear
gloves while handling raw meat.
"If you wear gloves, maybe it slows you down if you want to pick up
the chicken pieces because they’re slippery. But again I don't work
in that part of the factory. But I've seen them doing that (not
wearing gloves)," he said.
Another Husi worker, who gave only the surname Zhang, said by
telephone that he worked on the production line breaking up chicken
into pieces. He said he quit because of the low pay.
"When it (raw meat) drops, they usually don't see it, and even if
they do it was fine to pick it up and put it back," he said. "There
was an attitude of 'it doesn't really matter'."
The former workers' comments contrasted with what one worker at
another of OSI's food processing plants in Langfang in the northern
Chinese province of Hebei told Reuters. He said that regulations
there were very strict, all workers need to wear special clothes,
and spot checks were often held unannounced.
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"The inspections are done by everyone: our own company, the
government and also clients like McDonald's. Our rules are very
strict and food safety standards are very high," said the worker,
surnamed Wei, as he took a break at a nearby supermarket. He added
the Hebei factory, which processes meat, vegetables and flour
products according to its website, was still open for business
despite ongoing government inspections.
"DOCTORED RECORDS" Xinhua also cited the Shanghai food watchdog's
deputy head Gu as saying that Shanghai Husi's controls systems and
records for suspected products violated Chinese regulations. In the
Dragon TV documentary on Sunday, staff at the Shanghai Husi facility
said they kept two record books related to food products, one of
which was doctored to be shown to anyone who came to audit the
facility. According to the report, which claimed to show an
inspection of the facility by McDonald's, Shanghai Husi staff were
aware a day in advance of the visit and made sure that only
compliant products were being processed on the day.
Separately, the Shanghai food watchdog said it had sealed more than
1,000 tonnes of suspected meat products from OSI in China, and a
further 100 tonnes of products from a range of its customers.
In Japan, a spokesman for Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd said a licensee
in Shanghai had been selling two hamburger products using meat
supplied by Shanghai Husi. Both products were removed from outlets
on Monday.
A spokeswoman for FamilyMart Co Ltd said the Japanese convenience
store chain had begun a supply deal with Shanghai Husi this month,
selling a "Garlic Nugget" product at its around 10,000 stores in
Japan. Another product, "Popcorn Chicken" began test-sales mainly in
Tokyo this week. Sales of both products were halted on Tuesday. The
company said there were no reports of any customers falling sick
from the products.
"I am deeply sorry for causing this trouble and worry to all those
involved," FamilyMart President Isamu Nakayama told reporters in
Tokyo. "We do not think 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."
On Tuesday, McDonald's Holdings Co (Japan) Ltd said the company had
sourced about a fifth of its Chicken McNuggets from Shanghai Husi
and had halted sales of the product on Monday.
(Additional reporting by Ran Kim, Shimizu Ritsuko and Olivier Fabre
in TOKYO and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
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