McDonald's Supplier Fined for Water Pollution

Beijing has imposed its biggest ever pollution fine to a company which supplies french fries to McDonald's in China.

JR Simplot Food Processing will have to pay 3.9 million yuan (the equivalent of £408,000 and $629,000) after its waste water was found to contain levels of impurities above the legal limits. A small amount of polluted water entered the city's mains water pipes but a local official was quoted as saying that it not did not pose a danger to the public.

Statements from McDonalds and Simplot

JR Simplot, headquartered in Idaho, is a global potato supplier for McDonald's and is one of the U.S. chain's key suppliers. The unit in China, set up in 1992, is a joint venture in which McDonald's holds a 5 percent stake, the U.S. fast food giant confirmed in a statement.  McDonald's also confirmed that it took the issue very seriously and would be monitoring Beijing Simplot's compliance, adding that suppliers "must comply with all relevant local laws and regulations".

"Simplot has assured us that they have implemented a corrective action plan, and we will continue to hold them accountable for implementation and enhanced procedures for compliance" McDonald's said.

For their part, Simplot confirmed that they had paid the fine and said that as soon as they discovered the waste-water leaks they complied with the environmental bureau, took measures to stop the emissions and were investigating the matter to stop it happening again.

Pollution in China

China has been facing international pressure to clean up its environment and there has been an increasing volume of local protest about pollution. You can read more about this in the following article China Gets Heavy Bill to Clean up Air Quality.

The Chinese government strengthened its environmental regulations at the start of this year as public anger built over the worsening levels of pollutants that regularly afflict the country's cities and waterways. The state will ban water-polluting paper mills, oil refineries, pesticide producers and other industrial plants by the end of 2016, as part of a move towards tackling the severe pollution of water supplies which has left one-third of China's major river basins and 60 percent of its underground water contaminated.

Chinese sales at McDonald's and Yum Brands Inc's KFC slumped last year after one of their suppliers, Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd, was forced to suspend operations following an undercover Chinese media report which allegedly showed workers using out-of-date meat and amending production dates. The U.S-based meat supplier OSI Group is the parent company of Shanghai Husi.

To read more about the current air pollution problem in China, see the following report on Air Pollution in China Today.