China Probes 581 Firms, Restaurants As Food Safety Scare Spreads

A security personnel stands guard in front of the processing plants food inspection site in Langfang, Hebei Province, July 23, 2014. Shanghai Police said Wednesday they arrested five people in an investigation of a China-based provider of foreign fast food brands, including KFC and McDonalds Corp over allegations the company supplies out of date meat.




(Reuters) - China's food regulator has visited nearly 600 restaurants, shops and food distributors, and investigating a scare rapid spread of food security has been extended in a number of global and local food brands hit so far away as Japan.

Shanghai police detained five people Wednesday, including the head and the head of Shanghai Husi quality food, a China-based provider of foreign fast food brands, including KFC, McDonalds Corp and Starbucks coffee chain Corp over allegations that supplies meat out of date. Shanghai Food Husi is owned by Illinois-based OSI Group.

Yum Brands Inc, owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, cut ties with OSI and McDonald said the offer facilities for the new Shanghai plant OSI in the east-central province of Henan budge.

The Municipal Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that visited 581 related to the suspected food using expired meat from Shanghai Husi Foods facilities, and sent 875 personnel to conduct inspections.

Chinese police, local government and prosecutors are also involved in the case. Police have given more details about the detainees.

The scandal erupted after a television report on Sunday showed the staff at Shanghai Food Husi using expired meat while and gather food from the ground to re-add to the mix. Some former staff in the facility has told Reuters that supervision was lax plant, although other workers OSI management unit and those rules were very strict.

OSI said in a statement that local Chinese officials have inspected all other facilities in China and found no problems. The company apologized to its customers in China in a statement Wednesday. "What happened in Shanghai Husi is completely unacceptable. Going to bear the responsibility for these errors, and will be sure that does not happen again," said Chairman and CEO Sheldon Lavin.

McDonalds Japanese convenience stores and FamilyMart Co Ltd said they had taken some products from their shelves in Japan, which had been supplied by Shanghai Husi.

Chinese consumers are sensitive to food safety after scare a mortal milk scandal in 2008. KFC Yum saw slump in sales after a security scare food at the end of 2012 while Wal-Mart Stores Inc was attacked earlier this year from contaminated meat products.

Ten Provinces Among Targets Of Latest Anti-Graft Inspections

Researchers will also be sent to the institute of higher research and major automaker state-owned

Wang Qishan, secretary of the CCDI, said inspectors could investigate any location, department, company or sector in which suspected severe graft. Photo: Xinhua

Anticorruption chief mainland promised zero tolerance for corruption announces the latest round of inspections of equipment.



Wang Qishan, Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said the new round was held to 10 provincial-level governments, a national body, top research institute in the mainland and a company owned state, China News Service reported.

It would be the fourth round of raids since May last year.

The inspectors fan out to Guangxi, Shanghai, Qinghai, Tibet, Zhejiang, Hebei, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Sichuan and Jiangsu. Special research projects would also be held at the State Sports General Administration, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese state-owned FAW Group.

Wang said the inspectors could investigate any location, department, company or sector in which suspected severe graft.

The promise was that two senior officials from the mainland were demoted and stripped of his party membership of serious violations of discipline, said the anti-corruption agency.

The move is unusual because officials suspected of corruption tend to be handed over to prosecutors, but observers said the investigation could continue. Zhao Zhiyong, general secretary of Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, and Zhang Tianxin, former party chief of Kunming in Yunnan, had committed "serious violations of discipline," the anti-corruption monitoring agency announced on its website yesterday.

Zhao was demoted to an entry level position, while Zhang was given a ceremonial post as deputy chief of the section - the third lowest of the bureaucracy of the mainland.

Was found to have taken advantage of their position for personal gain. Malpractice Zhang had also caused the loss of state assets, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said.

Their illicit gains were confiscated, the statement said, without elaborating. The agency did not say whether the two would be handed over to the judicial authorities.

An official of the discipline, who requested anonymity, said the two officials cooperated with the investigation and offered to return their profits, which could explain why only were degraded.

Chinese Police Inspect Gas Stations Amid Anti-Terror Campaign

Beijing: Beijing Police today began inspecting about 1,000 service stations in its latest move to end terrorism in the restive province of Xinjiang.

Over 100 teams will verify the safety inspection stations, as well as the management of petroleum products there, a police spokesman told the state news agency Xinhua.

Gas stations have banned refueling vehicles without license plates or registration plates of their covers, he said.



Special personnel shall be appointed to take care of the fuel pumps from which guests serve themselves while motorcyclists and disabled also designated staff to help refuel their vehicles, he added.

Customers are required to provide the relevant documents issued by the local police department before you buy gasoline in bulk, and asked staff not to refuel vehicles before making sure that the number plate of the vehicle is consistent with the number of the license.

"Gas stations are where flammable and explosive materials are stored, and it is necessary to ensure security there," the spokesman said.

Beijing police have strengthened efforts to combat terrorism following a series of terrorist attacks in the country.

China blames East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) for attacks in Xinjiang and the rest of the country.

On Monday, police in Beijing awarded 10,000 yuan (USD 1,600) a citizen to provide information about the smuggling of gasoline in the Daxing district of the capital.

Meanwhile, police are offering 50,000 yuan for providing puffs on illegal activities, including printing books on extremism, knives sale prohibited by the police, and the manufacture of explosive devices.