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provider of foreign fast food brands, including KFC and McDonalds Corp over allegations the company supplies out of date meat.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fast food brands, including KFC, McDonalds Corp and Starbucks coffee chain Corp over allegations that supplies meat out of date.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.