Four Moscow McDonalds shut by Russian consumer watchdog
RT,
19
August, 2014
Russia’s
consumer watchdog has shut down four McDonald's restaurants in
central Moscow – including the first-ever outlet in the country –
over “administrative violations.” More of the company 430 Russian
franchises are under investigation.
“Multiple
violations of sanitary norms were detected in the sourcing of food
and waste disposal in McDonald’s restaurants during inspections
carried out between the 18th and 20th of August,” said
an official statement from
the watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor.
The
company has said that it will study the allegations against its
franchises, and “will
do everything to ensure that the restaurants open as soon as
possible.”
“McDonald’s
main priority is offering its customers quality and safe
produce,” said a statement on
the McDonald’s website.
Among
the temporarily shuttered establishments is the restaurant in
Pushkinskaya Square – once the biggest in the world – that became
iconic when it opened in 1990 in what was still the Soviet Union,
creating mile-long queues of Russians ready to wait several hours to
sample the taste of America.
The
first checks - and subsequent rumors that the entire burger chain may
be shut down - took place in the northwestern city of Veliky Novgorod
in May.
“The
Caesar roll and vegetable salad have been found to contain microbe
pollution with E.Coli bacteria and 10 times the safe level of
microbes,” the
watchdog said in a statement back then. ‘This
attests to the fact that the staff breached personal hygiene rules,
and the corporate sanitary disinfection regime.”
A
separate claim from Rospotrebnadzor said that the nutrition sheets
provided by the company did not match the actual content of the
burgers on sale.
The
burger chain – which is headquartered in Illinois, but sells its
franchise licenses to Russian companies and individuals - employs
over 35,000 staff, and retailed nearly $1.5 billion worth of food to
customers in the country last year.
The
shot across the bow – after nearly 25 years of rapid expansion in
Russia for the US company – comes amidst an escalation of sanctions
between Moscow and the West. After Washington and Brussels imposed
restrictions on financial lending and technological imports for
Russian companies due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine earlier this
month, Russia responded by embargoing agricultural produce from
Europe and the US for one year
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