McDonald’s halts Liuhe supply (2)

However, Tian Qingyao, a McDonald's PR manager, denied the statement as incorrect when contacted by the Global Times Wednesday.

Executives at McKey Foods and OSI Group were not immediately available for comment.

The primary suppliers process raw food materials from the secondary suppliers for McDonald's, but it is McDonald's who chooses the raw material suppliers based on its own selection criteria, Guangzhou-based Money Week newspaper reported in April.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) sample-tested McDonald's chicken products for antibiotic residues after the watchdog announced December 20 that it had found excessive drug residues in Yum! Brands Inc's samples, the xinhuanet.com report said. Yum! is the operator of another US fast food chain, KFC, in China.

Yum! said on December 18 that it had canceled its contract with Liuhe in August.

McDonald's has yet to decide whether to cancel its contract with Liuhe, pending the SFDA test results, the news report said.

Farmers in Jiaxiang county, Shandong Province who cooperated with Liuhe to raise and sell chickens said some of them lost up to 90,000 yuan ($14,420) recently, as the tainted chicken scandal has weighed on prices, e-commerce website alibaba.com reported Wednesday.

Veterinary drug sellers should bear the main responsibility for the excessive antibiotic residues, because many Chinese farmers were sold the drugs without any knowledge of how to use them properly, Zhu Yi, a veterinary professor at China Agricultural University, told the Global Times.

Poor ventilation, insufficient disinfection and substandard management are also causes of antibiotic overdose in chicken farms, Zhu said, urging more technical support to the farmers.

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