A Papa John’s outlet in Pukou was exposed for using expired pizza dough at the end of July. With the announcement made by Investigators from Pukou Food and Drug Administration, the US franchise is joining a list of foreign food companies to be affected by food safety issues; apart from shattering the credibility of the pizza company’s slogan, “Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Papa John’s”.
In response to the unsavoury, dough-discovery the Nanjing-based store was temporarily closed and Papa John’s spokespeople have assured consumers that the scandal was a “one-off”, that does not extend beyond this branch of the franchise. In spite of these reassuring words, however, the discovery was met with profoundly negative responses by local and international reporters due to the highly unfortunate timing of this incident with China’s recent and most far-reaching far-reaching food-scandal raging on; the distribution of expired meat by supplier, Shanghai Husi Food Co.
Only two weeks ago, this supplier was scrutinised after a shocking, televised broadcast showed out-dated, recycled meat being carelessly and dangerously handled by members of Husi Food’s staff. The report asserted that the company was purposefully selling expired poultry and beef, branded with fake production dates, to purchasers on an international scale. Unsurprisingly, the expose was met with shocked and disgusted responses from viewers.
While food scandals in China happen almost on a daily basis due to the lax quality assurance regulations, so far they have only crushed Chinese companies’ reputations, while foreign firms managed to uphold their clean, superior image. However, “Poultrygate” sees the likes of popular franchises such as McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and Starbucks, all of which were supplied by Husi’s untrustworthy meat products, thrust into the unwanted spotlight.
Yet, the infamous list of internal food scandals is not only longer but infinitely more loathsome by comparison. Tales range from chemically-saturated “exploding” watermelons in China’s Jiangsu Province to Walmart’s “delicious” five-spice donkey meat containing distinct traces of Fox DNA. Reports of cadmium metal traces in rice-fields, bean sprouts injected with hormones and recycled, dirty cooking oil and plastic shoe soles being used in yoghurts for texture; examples such as these have contributed to disintegrating consumer confidence levels in China over the past years.
Said confidence levels reached an all time low in 2008, when Chinese infants were diagnosed with kidney stones after consuming Sanlu milk powder, a popular product later proven to contain dangerously high traces of melamine, a toxic chemical intended to deceivingly improve the milk’s protein content in quality tests. Consumption of the adulterated milk powder killed six infants and sickened an estimated 300,000.
In light of such life threatening breaches of consumer trust, one might argue that a little out-of-date pizza dough is not the end of the world; what it will be the end of is undoubtedly Papa John’s success in Nanjing.
