Mcdonald, Carrefour caught in a food safety scandal in China

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Food safety, a constant issue in China, this time came to haunt multinational brands Mcdonald's and Carrefour after staff of both the units were caught on camera selling expired chicken products and meat that fell on the ground.

State-run CCTV has put out a video report by its 'under cover Reporters' selling food which under the rules, should have been thrown away. Both companies apologised and ordered investigations, media reports said.

The videos showed staff changing expiry dates besides picking up beef that had fallen on the ground and putting back on the racks. The reports were carried by CCTV as part of its nationwide coverage of the concerns over food safety issues on China's Consumer Rights Day on Thursday.

In the video, the staff at the McDonald's restaurant in the capital's central Sanlitun area were seen resetting clocks on ovens when they sounded an alarm that the food inside should be thrown away. By resetting the clocks, the food could be reheated over and over again until sold.

At lunchtime on March 1, workers put a plate of fried chicken wings into the ovens where they should only have been kept for 30 minutes. But two hours later the wings had still not been thrown away and were still available to be sold.

Cheese pieces are required by restaurant rules to be discarded two hours after they are exposed to the air. But in the video, cheese was kept on dishes for more than four hours and later used in breakfast burgers.

The staff was also be seen rewriting expiry dates. "According to regulation, the expired pies should be thrown away, but no branch restaurants would follow the rules and the supervisor) are turning a blind eye. Regulations? They are made by human beings," state-run Shanghai Daily quoted a staffer as saying.

In another scene, raw beef fell on the ground but a worker simply picked it up and put it back. "It's fine, it's not you who will eat them," said the worker. "The bacteria will all die when the beef is fried and no one will have any health problems after eating it, " the worker explained.

China has experienced a series of scandals over food issues which ranged from baby mil products to cooking oil. Both McDonald's and Carrefour immediately announced that they ill probe the matter.

"McDonald's China attaches great importance to this. We will immediately investigate this isolated incident, resolutely deal with it earnestly and take concrete actions to apologize to consumers," it said in a statement.

Carrefour too announced setting up of a team to investigate. "We will further enhance the training and take measures to ensure to earnestly implement the relevant provisions to safeguard the interests of consumers," it said statement.

A similar controversy dogged 13 Wallmart stores last year, which were ordered to be closed for two weeks.