McDonald’s, Yum Brands stop using supplier accused of using expired meat

McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, the company behind Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, apologized to customers Monday after footage from a Chinese TV station alleged workers at a Shanghai supplier for some of the two companies’ Asian outlets used expired meat and products that fell on the ground, reported Reuters.

Dragon TV channel reported that workers at Husi Food Co. in Shanghai repackaged and sold expired chicken and beef by mixing it with fresh meat. The channel’s footage also alleged workers picked up meat off the factory floor and used it rather than disposing of it.

“We are committed to the highest standards of food safety and our customers are always our number one priority,” U.S. McDonald’s spokesperson Heidi Barker told The Times in an email. “If confirmed, the practices outlined in the report are completely unacceptable to McDonald’s.”

The two fast food companies have asked all outlets to stop using Husi Food Co., resulting in limited quantities of some menu items, reported Bloomberg News. The facility is currently under investigation.

“The Shanghai facility supplied beef, chicken and lettuce to our restaurants in Shanghai and a handful of other cities in China,” Barker said. “The facility also supplied Chicken McNuggets only to Japan.”

In 2012, a Chinese TV report showed a McDonald’s restaurant in Beijing selling chicken wings an hour and a half after they were cooked. Company policy says the sell-by limit is 30 minutes, reported The Times’ Tiffany Hsu. And just last year, reports surfaced of a Yum! Brands supplier pumping antibiotics into chicken headed for KFC locations in Asia.

Twitter: @Jenn_Harris_