Food firm is blacklisted over ‘old meat’ scandal

Fast food chain Shanghai Husi Food Co and three of its former workers have been blacklisted over the 2014 expired meat scandal. [Photo/Shanghai Daily]

Fast food chain Shanghai Husi Food Co and three of its former workers have been blacklisted over the 2014 expired meat scandal.

The Shanghai food watchdog yesterday said former executives Hu Jun, Liu Lijie and Zhang Hu has been convicted of food safety crimes and have been banned from the food industry for life.

The trio and the company also face restrictions on bank loans and land use permits.

Shanghai Husi was found to have supplied meat that had passed its use-by date to companies such as McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King between April, 2013 and July, 2014.

Husi’s food processing plant in Jiading District was raided by officials from the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration following a TV program accusing it of using out-of-date and substandard meat.

Husi was fined 1.2 million yuan (US$176,470) and its food production license was revoked.

The three executives were jailed.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration also said yesterday it had blacklisted nine people working at four restaurants for using poppy or other banned products in their food.

In one case, Ren Dongyun, the operator of a beef soup restaurant in Jinshan District, which was unlicensed, was jailed for seven months and fined 5,000 yuan last year by the Jinshan District People’s Court after the restaurant’s beef soup was found to contain papaverine — an anti-spasmodic drug — and morphine.

In another case, two people working for Afandi Snack Restaurant in Jinshan were sentenced to up to seven months in prison and fined 30,000 yuan last year for adding poppy capsules to soup to enrich flavor. These people face a lifetime ban from the food industry.