Thought I would order out tonight using a Globe menu:
"Food safety fears hit US firms in China" by Roberto A. Ferdman and Jiaxi Lu | Washington Post July 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — The number of food scandals is piling up for US fast-food companies in China.
Not again.
McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut apologized Sunday to Chinese customers after a meat supplier was caught mishandling its products.
Shanghai-based Husi Food Co. was forced to shut down after Dragon TV ran footage of factory workers picking hamburger patties and meat off the factory floor and throwing them into meat mixers and using bare hands to handle poultry and beef. The footage also showed sewage and trash spread on the floor of the plant.
Related(?): ABC's Food Lion Lies: A Study in TV Deception
In addition, expired meat, described as ‘‘stinky’’ by workers, was either concealed by mixing it with nonexpired meat or by altering expiration dates....
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Related(?):
"Cows produce considerably more methane — a greenhouse gas that is dozens of times more potent than carbon dioxide — than pigs, chickens, or turkeys do, said Gidon Eshel, an environmental physics professor at Bard College in New York. The manure used to grow feed for cows also releases methane. And because they are bigger, cows eat more food than other animals raised for protein that humans eat. And nitrogen, from fertilizer runoff, can harm rivers, lakes and bays."
Then let's kill all the cows so we don't need a carbon tax. There is always lamb to eat.
"China meat scandal hits Starbucks, Burger King" by Joe McDonald | Associated Press July 23, 2014
BEIJING — A meat scandal in China engulfed Starbucks and Burger King on Tuesday and spread to Japan, where McDonald’s said the Chinese supplier accused of selling expired beef and chicken had provided 20 percent of the meat for its chicken nuggets.
It's global, folks. Are you sure it is beef?
Chinese authorities expanded their investigation of the meat supplier, Shanghai’s Husi Food Co. A day after Husi’s food processing plant in Shanghai was sealed by the China Food and Drug Administration, the agency said Tuesday that inspectors will look at its facilities and sources in five provinces in central, eastern, and southern China.
The scandal surrounding Husi Food, owned by OSI Group of Aurora, Ill., has added to a string of safety scares in China over milk, medicines, and other goods that have left the public wary of dairies, restaurants, and other suppliers.
Food safety violations will be severely punished, the food agency said on its website.
Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday that it removed from its shelves sandwiches made with chicken that originated at Husi. Burger King Corp. said it stopped using hamburger it received from a supplier that used products from Husi. Pizza restaurant chain Papa John’s International Inc. announced it stopped using meat from Husi.
In Japan, McDonald’s Corp. said it stopped selling McNuggets at more than 1,300 outlets that used chicken supplied by Husi. It said the Shanghai company had been supplying chicken to it since 2002.
A Shanghai broadcaster, Dragon TV, reported Sunday that Husi repackaged old beef and chicken and put new expiration dates on them. It said they were sold to McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut.
McDonald’s and Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, said they stopped using meat from Husi.
The safest thing to do is NOT EAT AT ANY OF THEM!
During a call to discuss its quarterly earnings Tuesday, chief executive Don Thompson said McDonald’s felt deceived about the plant in question.
I am every day when I begin reading a Boston Globe. You get used to it.
A third restaurant chain, Taiwanese-owned Dicos, also stopped using meat from Husi.
In a statement, Husi said it was ‘‘appalled by the report’’ and will cooperate with the investigation. It promised to share results with the public.
‘‘Our company management believes this to be an isolated event, but takes full responsibility for the situation and will take appropriate actions swiftly,’’ Husi said.
Some companies said they did not deal with Husi but discovered their suppliers bought meat from the company.
Food and drug safety is an unusually sensitive issue in China following scandals over the past decade in which infants, hospital patients, and others have been killed or sickened by phony or adulterated milk powder, drugs, and other goods.
Like it is not anywhere!!
Remember the compounding crisis back here? The salmonella scares? What food is making my ma$$ media forget? Radiated seafood from the Pacific? Oil-soaked seafood from the Gulf?
Foreign fast food brands are seen as more reliable than Chinese competitors, though local brands have made big improvements in quality.
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Related: Meat supplier in China scandal has global reach
Only a fool believes in the global-corporate food supply chain now. More often than not you are eating shit.
I would say try fish, but....
Mass. becomes ninth state to ban shark fin trade
Shark Fin Soup For Supper
Sunday Globe Special Soup
There will even be some left for breakfast.
Related: Great White Shark Surge
"For Cape’s shops, sharks spell sales; Demand strong for great whites on myriad goods" by Rodrique Ngowi | Associated Press July 22, 2014
CHATHAM — Great white sharks are having an unusual effect on Cape Cod this summer, and many a merchant is going to need a bigger wallet.
The sharks being spotted in growing numbers are stirring curiosity and a buying frenzy for shark-related merchandise.
Shark T-shirts are everywhere, ‘‘Jaws’’ has been playing in local movie theaters and boats are taking more tourists out to see the huge seal population that keeps the sharks coming. Harbormasters have issued warnings but — unlike the sharks in the movies — the great whites generally are not seen as a threat to human swimmers....
The posh resort town is on the elbow of the Cape, which has a large population of gray seals — the massive animals whose blubber is the fuel of choice for great white sharks. Local shops sell jewelry, candy, clothes, stuffed animals, and beverages with shark motifs.
A study released last month by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found the number of great white sharks off the Eastern United States and Canada is surging after decades of decline. Conservation efforts and the greater availability of prey such as Massachusetts’ seals are credited with the reversal.
Shark sightings have soared....
I just hit bottom.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE: Bill Chaprales on the hunt for the elusive great white sharks
Feeling a lot like the summer of 2001, isn't it?
