Opinion | Hong Kong must impose checks on its pre-cooked meat imports
Albert Cheng says even the most radical lawmakers would not dare to filibuster legislation on pre-cooked meat in light of the Husi scandal
Last year, Forbes named McDonald's the seventh most powerful brand in the world. The brand value of the golden arches was estimated at a staggering HK$290 billion. One would have thought its executives would guard the company's business reputation like their own lives. This, however, is hardly the case for McDonald's operation in Hong Kong.
In the span of less than two weeks, local consumer confidence in the giant fast food chain has plummeted. McDonald's Hong Kong is now synonymous with a total public relations failure.
McDonald's has been implicated in an international food safety scare, as it was caught selling meat imported from Shanghai Husi Food Company , which an exposé revealed had repackaged out-of-date meat. After the exposé, McDonald's in Japan and mainland China reacted swiftly by acknowledging Husi was a supplier and severing commercial dealings with the company.
They have positioned themselves as innocent victims of yet another food safety scandal in China. After all, malpractices in the mainland food industry are well documented.
Shanghai Husi is a subsidiary of US-based OSI Group. Sheldon Lavin, the chairman and chief executive of OSI, told the press the group's headquarters in Illinois had no idea about what was going on in the Shanghai factory.
As put it in its leader on July 24, "Anything goes in China's food system". The newspaper recalled: "Since April 2013, more than 155 people have died from a strain of avian influenza, a disease linked to poor sanitary conditions in poultry markets. Last year, officials found high levels of cadmium, which has been linked to organ failure and cancer, in rice at markets and restaurants in Guangdong province. And, earlier this year, Walmart stores in China recalled packages of donkey meat that contained meat from other animals."
