McDonald's, KFC, Burger King and Starbucks have been dragged into a major food-hygiene scandal in China where a supplier was found to be using meat that had past its expiry date.

Shanghai Husi Food Co, a Chinese meat supplying unit of US-based food provider OSI Group, has been shut down by Chinese regulators after allegedly mixing the expired meat with fresh meat.

Following a TV report that showed workers picking up meat from a factory floor, a manager at the Shanghai company's factory alleged company executives had been using expired ingredients for a few years.

McDonald's and Yum Brands' KFC and Pizza Hut were the first hit, both forced into apologise to Chinese customers after the news emerged, and immediately switching to alternative suppliers.

Starbucks on Tuesday admitting some of its stores had sold products containing chicken sourced from the supplier, while it emerged that Burger King and Papa John's were also customers and had removed associated food products from their outlets.

McDonald's troubles later spread over the sea to Japan, when it was found meat from Shanghai Husi had been used in chicken McNuggets in its branches there.

The Shanghai food and drug authority suspended the supplier and demanded it remove all meat products as well as closing a processing facility and seizing suspected raw food items.

While McDonald's stock was down 1% half an hour after markets opened on Tuesday, Yum's was up 0.89%, Starbucks was up 1.25%, Burger King was up 1.34% and Papa John's International 2.02%.


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