Expired meat leaves toxic trail

I cannot believe that from the processing plants right down to the line cook in the kitchens of McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut no one could tell whether the meat had gone bad. Who would ever believe that?

Even more appalling is the fact that all the fast food chains have their own supervision system and their own suppliers and supplies, and that tons of expired meat slipped right under their nose to end up in the grillers and pans to be served gleefully to unsuspecting consumers like you and me.

How did it happen? Where were the conscience and morality of the people who allowed all this to happen?

Even if I accept that no one from the factory down to the fast food outlets' kitchens could tell whether the meat was bad, how can I believe that not a single customer lodged a serious complaint that the meat in his/her burger tasted bad and that the number of the usual complaints was nominal?

And how could the regulators, who seemingly were doing their job all this while, not detect any of the lot of expired meat? Are random, informal and unannounced checks never conducted to ensure food safety and maintain hygiene standards?

I have to question regulators' due diligence. Reporters would not have to do dangerous undercover stories to expose rogues in the world of business, and contaminated and expired food would not end up in our mouths if regulators do their job properly to ensure food safety.

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(China Daily 08/12/2014 page9)