A local unit of the well-known catering company Compass Group PLC is currently being investigated by Chinese authorities. Reportedly, the group has served a private school with expired, moldy food. Chinese authorities are also going to probe catering units operating in other schools around the same city.
In a statement, China's market supervisory, the advisory administration claimed that over the week, it launched an investigation on the operating qualifications and food safety controls of Shanghai Eurest Food Technologies in relation to its activities at the Shanghai SMIC Private School. The crackdown on the said unit's activities is not surprising. China has recently amped up its efforts to regulate food and drug safety.
Regulators and consumers are now overly sensitive about quality and safety issues in relation to what they consume or take in, especially after all the horrendous scandals related to food and drug safety that have wracked the nation over the years. Most notable cases included selling of expired vaccines and reused meat. China wants to make sure nothing similar can take place anymore.
"If the school and the contractor are found to have been violating the law, then they will be swiftly and severely investigated according to the law," the market regulator proclaimed in a statement on the said investigation.
Evidence of how invested Chinese people are on this news is the fact that The case ranked number 12 on the most read topics featured in Weibo. A swift resolution to the investigation showing what had truly transpired will be at the best interests of everyone, including that of Compass Group, PLC.
The said company can certainly be negatively affected if the accusations are proven true in the investigation. According to the affected school, the SMIC school, which has around 3,000 enrolled students, specific expired or stale food products were found in the kitchen of the school cafeteria by parents during an inspection conducted. The date of manufacturing put on the food labels also appeared suspicious.
Being Britain-based and the world's biggest catering firm, shedding light on how this controversy could have happened is necessary. The company earned US$29.56 billion in profits back in 2017 alone.
Recently, China made sure that a vaccine maker found to be manufacturing faulty vaccines was fined with a record amount of $1.3 billion to show how serious it is about halting such activities. The unit of Changsheng Bio-technology trigged widespread anger over its actions. China has never been one to shy away from meting out tough punishments in the past, but these cases continue to take place.
