On December 19, 2012, the municipal food safety administration body in China said that it is testing samples of raw chicken which is being supplied to the fast food chain giant KFC. The samples will be tested over public concerns that excessive amounts of antibiotics are being used in the chicken meat.
The Food and Drug Administration of Shanghai said that the results are expected to be out on December 20, 2012. Earlier reports by China Central Television stated that many chicken farmers in East China’s Shandong province feed their chickens excessive amounts of antibiotics, which include ribavirin and amantadine, so as to make them survive in overcrowded chicken houses.
Local farmers have sold chicken to the Shandong Liuhe Group and Yingtai Co, which have claimed to be the suppliers of KFC. The recent reports have also raised concerns over the health effects of consuming these chickens being used by KFC. Shanghai has about 300 stores of KFC, which receive huge amounts of raw chicken from Shandong.
The Food and Drug administration said that it has taken about 32 samples of raw chicken from a logistics centre belonging to Yum Brand Inc. which is KFC’s parent company. The investigation said that the inventory from previous purchases has already been sold. KFC said on December 18, 2012, that it has stopped buying raw chicken from Shandong Liuhe in the month of August, 2012.
