TOKYO — McDonald’s Corp’s Japan business and Cargill Inc are investigating complaints that objects were found in chicken nuggets made by a Cargill unit in Thailand, the restaurant chain’s second food-safety crisis in six months.
The affected nuggets, supplied by Cargill Meats Thailand, were sold at two outlets in Japan, including one in Tokyo, spokesman Takashi Hasegawa said by telephone today. McDonald's Japan is due to hold a briefing today on the probe at 3:30pm local time.
McDonald’s Japan switched to three Thailand meat suppliers after an earlier problem with Chinese-made chicken nuggets. Now more problems have surfaced with McNuggets made here. (AFP photo)
"We have already begun an investigation into this matter," Bruce Blakeman, Singapore-based vice president of corporate affairs for Cargill Asia Pacific, said in an e-mailed statement. Cargill, based in Minneapolis, will work closely with McDonald's as its investigation progresses, he said.
McDonald's Japan had switched sources of chicken nuggets to three Thailand factories, including two of Cargill's, after a food supplier scandal in China hit McDonald's restaurants in both countries last July, Hasegawa said. The change came after Shanghai Husi Food Co, a unit of Aurora, Illinois-based OSI Group Inc., was featured in a local television report on July 20 that showed workers repackaging old meat and changing expiration dates.
The Japanese chain last year withdrew its forecast for first profit increase since 2011 and predicted a 17 billion yen net loss in 2014 after suspending sales of the chicken nuggets from China. It was also forced to ration french fries last month after a labour dispute at US ports crimped supplies of potatoes.
Parent McDonald's Corp, the world's largest restaurant chain based in Oak Brook, Illinois, on Dec. 8 posted its worst monthly U.S. sales decline in more than a decade and said the China food scare took a toll on profit.