McDonald's Japan switches to Thai chicken supplier
TOKYO (AFP) - McDonald's said Friday that its restaurants in Japan had stopped selling products made with chicken from China, in a marked widening of a scandal that saw expired meat sold to fast food giants.
In its last fiscal year, McDonald's Japan bought about 38 per cent of its chicken products from China, with the rest imported from Thailand, a company spokeswoman told AFP.
"All of our chicken meals are now being made with poultry from Thailand," she said Friday.
More than 3,000 restaurants across Japan had also halted imports of chicken products from the country, the chain said, as it switched to distributors in Thailand "to address the concerns of our customers".
"We made this decision in view of the growing concern over McDonald's chicken products made in China," the Japanese unit's chief executive Sarah Casanova said in a statement.
The move came as McDonald's in Hong Kong said it would no longer sell chicken nuggets and several other items sourced from a US-owned firm in China at the centre the scandal.
"Out of stock" stickers were placed on menus around the southern Chinese city over products such as McDonald's McSpicy Chicken Filet and Chicken McNuggets.
"Prior to concerns being raised this week about food safety at the Shanghai facility, we had already stopped using products from the Shanghai plant, with the last import being in May," the fast food chain's Hong Kong unit said.
"There was no product from Husi Shanghai being sold to our customers," it added, as it suspended all sourcing from the firm's other plants.
In Japan, the change would affect eight dishes, including Chicken McNuggets and Chicken Fillet-O, it said.
