McDonald's offers fries with chocolate dip

Remember how some of us like our french fries with ketchup, and a hint of that chocolate sundae on the side?

Inspired by the peculiar eating habit of customers in Japan, fast food chain McDonald's is offering its customers not one, but two dipping sauces: chocolate and white milk chocolate!

Beginning January 26, McDonald's fans in Japan can enjoy a wonderful salty and sweet harmonious taste.

This is the latest spin on fries in the Land of the Rising Sun after its chains offered "Shaka Shaka Potato" fries, which were covered with cheese sauce or bacon.

So far, reaction to the chocolate fries on social media has been mixed. But those who love it say they are ready to move to Japan to get their hands on the Mc-choco potato.

- ANC, Market Edge, January 20, 2016

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

'Dental material' found in McDonald's burger in Japan

TOKYO - A Japanese woman has claimed she discovered fragments identified as "dental material" in a McDonald's hamburger, the company said Friday, the latest in a series of food contamination woes for the fast-food giant.

The claim comes two days after McDonald's held a press conference where it acknowledged several foreign objects had been found in its food, including a human tooth in a container of french fries at an outlet in Osaka.

In television footage aired Friday, the unidentified woman told the Asahi network that she found three tiny fragments of what looked like teeth in a burger she bought at a McDonald's in northern Kushiro city in September.

"I took a bite and there was a crunch," the woman said, adding she initially thought it was a piece of sand or stone.

"I can't help thinking that it was (already) in the meat," the customer added, as she showed a picture of the objects.

A third-party examination determined the opaque white fragments were "dental material", according to company spokeswoman Miwa Yamamoto, who added that the substance is commonly used to fill cavities or in other dental work.

McDonald's, however, would not confirm the woman's claim that the fragments were inside her burger.

Yamamoto said the customer was told that there was an "extremely low chance" it could have fallen into raw material given the highly-mechanised process.

None of the employees at the outlet had issues with their teeth at the time, and the customer denied it could have come from her own teeth, Yamamoto said.

On Wednesday, McDonald's acknowledged that a human tooth had been found in fries sold by another outlet last year, while it has also been hit by incidents in which pieces of vinyl were found in chicken nuggets and a tiny piece of hard plastic in a sundae.

Japanese media reports pointed to even more cases of contamination, including a piece of metal in a pancake.

The incidents mark another public relations setback for the firm, which is struggling to recover from the reputational battering it took in the summer when a Chinese supplier was found to be mixing out-of-date meat with fresh produce.

Then, late last year, the company had to airlift an emergency supply of french fries from the US after a chip shortage had resulted in rationing at its 3,000 restaurants across Japan.

Labour disputes on the US West Coast had bunged up the export chain, leaving Japanese firms scrambling to secure fresh supplies.

The difficulties looked set to hit McDonald's bottom line, with the Japanese unit earlier saying it was on track to report a 17 billion yen ($143 million) annual loss for 2014.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

McDonald's Japan apologizes for food safety scandal

TOKYO - McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) apologized Wednesday for the contamination of some food items at its restaurants, in another scandal that could further weigh on sales of the fast-food chain.

"We deeply apologize for having caused considerable inconvenience and concern," Takehiko Aoki, senior vice president of the company, said at a press conference. President Sarah Casanova was not present at the news conference due to a business trip.

The Japanese unit of the world's biggest fast-food chain admitted there were several cases in recent months in which customers had found objects such as bits of vinyl or plastic in a Chicken McNugget and other products sold at outlets in different parts of the country.

"These cases will not cause serious health problems," Aoki added.

In one incident, a child suffered a slight cut in the mouth caused by a 2 to 3 centimeter piece of plastic in a Chocolate Sundae sold at an outlet in Fukushima Prefecture on Dec. 19. McDonald's Japan said the problem was due to a faulty dessert machine and the restaurant had stopped using it.

It was also learned Tuesday that a customer in Osaka Prefecture had complained in August of a small object in fries that was later found to be a human tooth. The company said it is unlikely that the tooth had dropped into the fries during preparation.

The latest scandal is another blow to McDonald's Japan, already struggling with falling sales following a food-safety scandal last summer involving a Chinese-based meat supplier caught relabeling expired meat and breaching other rules.

The company has since halted all imports of chicken products from China, switching its sourcing to Thailand.

But the contaminated nugget, found in Aomori Prefecture on Saturday, had been produced at a Thai plant.

Nuggets produced on the same manufacturing line at the plant were delivered to restaurants in a total of 14 prefectures, including Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and 99 percent have already been sold, the company said.

In October, McDonald's Japan projected it would log a 17 billion yen ($142.7 million) net loss for 2014, its first swing to the red in 11 years, compared with a net profit of 5.14 billion yen for 2013.

The company has said it is investing in measures to improve product quality, such as unannounced audits of suppliers and distribution of more food-quality information to customers.

Customers showed a mixed reaction to the latest scandal.

"I'm a bit scared and hope they will quickly tell us the cause," said a woman, 63, who often visits a McDonald's restaurant in Tokyo where a piece of vinyl was found in a nugget on Dec. 31. She only had coffee Wednesday.

A 65-year-old office worker said, "We won't die even if we eat them. The number of customers may decline but I think they will come back in six months." He added he will continue to use the restaurant.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Customer finds vinyl in McDonald's nuggets in Japan

TOKYO - McDonald's Japan said Monday it was facing more chicken nugget woes after a customer found a piece of vinyl inside the popular menu item.

The company said the foreign object was discovered at an outlet in the northern city of Misawa, in a nugget sourced from a Thai company it had switched to in the wake of a food scare at one of its Chinese suppliers.

In July, Chinese officials shut food-supplier Shanghai Husi Food Co. following a television report alleging the plant mixed out-of-date meat with fresh product that was then supplied to McDonald's and other major fast-food chains.

The summertime crisis prompted the Japanese arm of the global firm to drop Chinese poultry suppliers and switched to manufacturers in Thailand.

Batches of nuggets made by the Thai supplier on the same day as the suspect item would not be sold, a company spokeswoman said.

"We are starting to investigate how this could have happened," she said.

The latest incident drew widespread media attention on Monday with the story covered by Japan's national broadcaster NHK and the top-selling Yomiuri newspaper.

It comes less than two weeks after the Japanese unit said an emergency airlift has eased a french fries shortage which forced the chain to ration the crispy treat at more than 3,000 restaurants across the country.

Labor disputes on the US West Coast curbed exports of fries, leaving Japanese restaurants scrambling to secure fresh supplies.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why McDonald's Japan is only serving small french fries

TOKYO - McDonald's Holdings Co (Japan) Ltd has embarked on the emergency measure of only offering small-sized french fries to customers as a protracted labor dispute at U.S. West Coast ports has contributed to long delays in imports.

The fast-food chain said it was importing more than 1,000 tonnes of frozen fries by air, which began arriving last Monday and had begun routing another 1,600 tonnes through ports on the U.S. East Coast which should begin arriving in late January.

Those steps alone, however, are not sufficient to prevent a shortage.

"Unfortunately without this sales restriction step, we would run the danger of running out of fries at some of our stores around the end of the year or beginning of the new year," said McDonald's Japan spokeswoman Kokoro Toyama.

Toyama said the company, which has 3,100 stores in Japan, was not placing any limit on the number of small-sized fries a customer may buy but the resumption of medium-sized and large-sized fries remains unclear. She declined to comment on the impact on earnings.

Container ports along the U.S. West Coast have been experiencing severe delays since October, in part due to lengthy labour talks between 20,000 dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association, representing terminal operators and shipping lines at 29 West Coast ports.

A shortage of tractor-trailer chassis used for hauling cargo from the ports to warehouses, record levels of imports into the United States, rail service delays and the advent of super-sized container vessels delivering greater cargo volumes have also contributed to the problem.

Japan is the biggest Asian market for U.S.-made frozen potato products, importing $336 million worth last year. A U.S. Potato Board official said last week that said port jams have at least doubled transit times for shipments of french fries to Japan from two to four weeks.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

McDonald's Japan stops sourcing all chicken from China

TOKYO - McDonald's Holdings Co (Japan) said it halted sales of all products that use chicken meat that originates in China on Friday, switching its sourcing completely to Thailand.

McDonald's Japan had already stopped selling items that used meat sourced from Shanghai Husi Food Co, a China-based supplier that had been shut down over food safety concerns. Shanghai Husi had supplied about 20 percent of its Chicken McNuggets.

"We made this decision in view of the growing concern over McDonald's chicken products made in China," McDonald's Japan Chief Executive Sarah Casanova said in a statement.

McDonald's Japan said some stores could sell out of chicken-based items depending on the level of available inventory.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com