Five people have been detained by Shanghai police investigating the recent food scandal that struck a major meat supplier for McDonald's and KFC.

The China-based supplier that also counts coffee chain Starbucks as a customer is under suspicion for delivering old and rotten meat.

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The company, Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd, is a unit of US based company OSI Group LLC.

According to Shanghai police, those detained included the head of Shanghai Husi and the company's quality manager

After it was known that Shanghai Husi sold expired meat to clients in China as well as in Japan, the big fast food chains pulled tons of products from their outlets

Xinhua News Agency cited earlier the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration as saying that this was not a matter of individuals violating the law. The food safety violations were rather company led.

As of yesterday, more than 1,000 tons of suspected meat products from OSI in China, and a further 100 tons of products from a range of its customers, have been sealed by the Shanghai watchdog for food and drugs.

The Illinois-based OSI parent company is appalled and has started its own investigation, but delined Wednesday to comment further.

It was a Chinese TV report on Sunday that broke the scandal after showing staff at the Shanghai Husi facility using expired meat and picking up meat from the floor to add to the mix.

At another of OSI's food processing plants in the province of Hebei, a worker told Xinhua that the rules were very strict. All workers have to wear special clothes and spot checks are held on a regular basis, yet unannounced.

The worker, who didn't want his name mentioned, added that the Hebei factory was still open for business despite government inspections.

TagsChinese food scandal