Chinese news videos of workers grinding expired meat into fresh and putting hamburger patties that had fallen on the floor back into production at Shanghai Husi Food Co created a scandal last week, as they should. That is just the press doing its job – like in the UK, where a poultry scandal was covered last week. But, in the ensuing media outcry, much of the opprobrium fell on Husi’s customers – fast-food chains such as McDonald’s and KFC. This does Chinese consumers more harm than good. Upscale hotels aside, western chains are among the most hygienic places to eat in Asia. Implying that they are unsafe risks sending people to less salubrious joints.
Stroll through a local market in China and there is little sign of quality control, hygiene or refrigeration. Chickens, ducks, piglets and animals that westerners might take for a walk hang from hooks all day at ambient temperature. Love your dinner on Jalan Alor, the Kuala Lumpur street famed for its open-air restaurants? Then do not look behind the shops, where dishes are washed in buckets of cold water with little soap and the effluvia dumped in the gutter. I once saw friends wiping their silverware with a napkin before eating, and told them that would be an insult to one’s host back home. They told me I could do whatever I wanted – and kept wiping. Ice with that drink? Follow the locals who take their water warm, a sign it has just been boiled. It is not uncommon to visit homes in Malaysia or Thailand and see food cooked in the morning and sit out all day in a hot room, covered by a plastic screen dome to keep the bugs off. It is no different in China – maybe worse in the countryside. A little stall on Huai Hai Zhong Road in Shanghai is said to have the best dumplings in town but its cleanliness wins no prizes.
American fast-food chains, like car manufacturers and electronics brands, have brought valuable technologies to Asia. Chief among them is food safety. Branches of companies such as KFC and McDonald’s are built to American specifications. Foods that require refrigeration are never allowed to warm up, meat is cooked at the proper temperature, ice machines are filled with filtered water, and strict time limits are observed so that food is served fresh. Months of work go into finding and certifying local suppliers to ensure proper hygiene and quality, with some chains going so far as set up their own distribution networks or producing some ingredients themselves. I founded and ran a chain of speciality coffee shops with operations in six Asian countries, and the biggest decision we had to make in each new market was who was going to supply our fresh milk. It was a lot harder than it sounds.