SHANGHAI – OSI Group is on trial in China following a government probe into alleged food safety issues at two of the Aurora, Ill.-based company’s China units, Reuters reported.
Prosecutors have charged the OSI units and 10 employees with producing and selling substandard food products. The trial is expected to last two to three days.
In 2014, food safety authorities in Shanghai temporarily suspended operations at a meat plant run by Shanghai Husi Food Co. Ltd., which supplied meat to McDonald’s, Yum! Brands and other companies with operations in China. Chinese regulators took the action after a local television report allegedly showed workers picking up meat from the plant floor and mixing fresh meat with expired meat.
Aurora, Ill.-based OSI Group quickly launched its own investigation into the matter and implemented a management and structural re-organization for its operations in China.
In January, the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration destroyed batches of alleged “questionable products” that were recalled from Shanghai Husi. OSI China issued a statement at the time, saying the “disposal cannot be construed in any way as an admission by Shanghai HUSI of food-safety problems in such voluntarily recalled products,” and that the company has cooperated fully with food and drug authorities in China.
