The Husi Food scandal that has engulfed popular foreign fast food chains McDonald’s KFC and Pizza Hut is showing no signs of letting up. After tainted meat products were discovered in Pizza Hut locations in Shenzhen and Zhuhai, it’s now been revealed that three Foshan Pizza Hut locations also had expired meat.

To any average person in China, this could be summarized as “yet another food safety scandal”. However, this is not these case for the Beijing Times, which is adamant that foreign fast food chains are the main problem.

The following is a complete translation of this editorial written by Gu Yun:

Beijing Times: Consumers Can Not Become the “Brain Dead” Pawns of Foriegn Fast Food

Consumers can not become the “brain dead” pawns of foreign fast food. Whether they be foreign (owned) brands or national companies, they must all comply with regulations in order to gain the trust of consumers. Any company that experiences problems with quality must accept criticism and punishments.

After the improper use of expired meat products by Husi Food Company, a food supplier for McDonald’s, KFC, and other foreign fast food restaurants, was exposed, relevant Shanghai authorities have investigated to show that this suspected company has been involved in illegal manufacturing and operating practices. At present, police have arrested five suspected individuals.

When the problem was exposed and the specific tainted products were identified, it was reasonable to say that consumers should be on alert for this kind of company that is lacking in morals and engages in illegal behavior. But according to this reporter’s investigation, Chicken McNuggets are still being purchased at a few McDonald’s restaurant locations in Beijing and Shanghai. In fact, the coverage of the food safety scandal hasn’t deterred the crowds of consumers that still frequent this restaurant. Other areas look to have the same situation as well.

Clearly aware that these foreign fast food restaurants have these food safety problems, consumers still flock to them in a mad rush nonetheless. No matter how you look at it, this remains a perplexing conundrum to figure out. What makes one’s eyes pop out is that there are articles online that say ‘let’s be grateful towards and continue to support foreign fast food restaurants’ with the main reason being that McDonald’s and KFC are also victims in this situation. For these people that are simultaneously in pain and pleasure, just what are they trying to say?

During this incident, the foreign fast food restaurants of McDonald’s, KFC, and others appear to be victims, but this is not the case. Every company must be responsible for their own production. In order to fulfill this requirement, [due dilligence] must begin right at the beginning with the raw ingredients. It goes without saying that the quality of the raw ingredients, whether good or bad, will decide the quality of the final product. The meat products supplied by Husi Foods Company are the main ingredient used by the foreign fast food companies, and the problem was allowed to get into the food supplied by these restaurants. How can foreign fast food restaurants still maintain that they remain completely virtuous? Although it’s said that Husi has betrayed McDonald’s, McDonald’s has betrayed consumers. Should we expect consumers to seek compensation from Husi Foods directly?

Many consumers still choose to patron foreign fast food restaurants, and so it is still a worthy topic to ruminate over. For instance, some people think that going to McDonald’s and KFC to eat now signifies the most safe time to do so. It appears this reasoning is not wrong. After such a serious case has happened, the first step to take is to establish preventative measures in regards to these responsible companies. However, the problem of expired meat products has already been exposed, and the quality control by foreign fast food companies has been shown to have overlooked this problem. How can consumers know that the next supplier is free of any problems?

There is also another theory that suggests foreign fast food companies aren’t actually any good, but still have better food safety than other domestic restaurants. In fact, with all these foreign brands in this era of globalization, these so-called foreign restaurants are really just localized companies. For instance, although Shanghai Husi Foods is a foreign company, all of its processed foods come from here in this country. Even more importantly, there’s no need to doubt these foreign fast food restaurants with quality control problems as this has nothing to do with whether or not other companies are able to detect quality control problems. This fact is ignored to the point that one will try to make excuses for them. However you look at it, this is self-loathing cultural behavior.

Consumers can not become the “brain dead” pawns of foreign fast food. Whether they be foreign (owned) brands or national companies, they must all comply with regulations in order to gain the trust of consumers. Any company that experiences problems with quality must accept criticism and punishments. In regards to this problem, we should be concerned with the facts and not ideology or picking sides. Whether we use this to “protect national companies” or say “foreign fast food restaurants are also victims”, it’s still to “serve as the bad guy” to twist the facts and subvert the truth.

Related:

• If You Dine At KFC or Pizza Hut, You Might Eat Expired Meat
• Shenzhen Pizza Huts Had Expired Meat, Guangzhou and Foshan Spared
• More Than 500 Bags Of Rotten Meat Found at Zhuhai Pizza Hut Restaurants

Photos: CCTV