????美國快餐曾經是中國食品丑聞中的一片凈土，如今也成了不光彩的對象。

????從本周早些時候開始，北京、上海和中國其他地區的麥當勞餐廳（McDonald’s）只提供魚肉漢堡。之前，麥當勞和肯德基（KFC）母公司百勝餐飲集團（Yum! Brands）的供應商——總部位于伊利諾伊州的福喜集團（OSI）宣布，將召回由上海福喜生產的所有肉類產品。

????上周，中國一家地方電視臺報道，上海福喜的員工使用腐爛或過期的產品制作碎肉，之后，情況愈演愈烈。相關部門關閉了工廠，福喜五名員工被上海警方拘留。

????這是肯德基多年以來在中國遭遇的第二起丑聞，有內部人士擔心其聲譽是否會受到不可挽回的傷害。而麥當勞一直是中國食品安全方面的楷模，其供應商福喜集團也曾被認為是全球最好的肉類供應商。

????咨詢公司Collective Responsibility創始人、上海中歐國際商學院（China-Europe International Business School）可持續發展兼職教授理查德?布魯貝克表示：“作為一家跨國肉類供應商，[福喜集團]曾宣稱其遵守更高的標準。結果，他們沒有證明比其他公司做得更好?！?/p>

????對于中國近期爆發的食品丑聞，批評的矛頭都指向了麥當勞和其他美國品牌。當福喜集團上海分公司逃避法規監管時，美國公司應該發現并解決問題，因為他們知道，中國監管部門并不能了解實情。

????中國的食品系統高度分散——全國有數億家小型農場，家畜養殖也非常分散。雖然中國相關方面的立法在不斷完善，但政府部門仍無法安排足夠的檢測。布魯貝克表示：“中國這方面的政府工作人員遠遠不足?！辈剪斬惪嗽鴧⒓舆^政府部門的巡回檢查，工作人員看起來疲憊不堪，非常惱火。他說：“如果你知道政府達不到預期標準，便只能靠自己。”

????麥當勞、肯德基、必勝客（Pizza Hut）和其他從福喜工廠采購食物的美國品牌，一直在中國宣稱執行更高的標準?，F在如何？首先，中國人對美國快餐食品更安全的信任已經消失。道歉只不過是一個起點。這些品牌靠自己不可能重新贏得消費者的信任。

????福喜集團總裁兼首席執行官戴維?麥克唐納也承認這一點，他在周一承諾進行全面的內部調查，并且要空降一支全新的管理團隊接手中國分公司。

????在此之前，中國已經發生了一系列食品恐慌。2008年的毒奶粉事件造成六名嬰兒死亡；2012年，肯德基被曝出在全國出售的雞肉抗生素超標；2013年初，黃浦江上出現15,000頭漂浮死豬，據稱與非法豬肉交易有關。

????不過，類似中國這樣系統性的食品安全問題并非沒有先例：早在一個世紀以前，英國和美國也曾遭遇過同樣糟糕的食品安全問題。

????十九世紀，英國的快速城市化，意味著食物能否進入城市，比是否適合消費更加重要。此外，二十世紀初，英國也經歷過造成嬰兒死亡的牛奶丑聞。與此同時，美國作家厄普頓?辛克萊揭露了芝加哥肉類加工業令人毛骨悚然的做法。當時，芝加哥的肉類加工業支撐著美國急速上漲的肉類消耗和出口。辛克萊的報告導致歐洲不定期禁止進口美國肉類，并且制定了繁瑣的檢驗標準。

????中國最近曝出的食品丑聞，在很多方面與之前的丑聞密切相關，其中，聯系最密切的可能要屬2011年的“瘦肉精”事件。當時媒體曝光了中國最大的豬肉生產商大量原料添加了之前被禁用的添加劑克倫特羅和雷托巴胺。在此事件中，地方管理者只考慮自身利益，而罔顧消費者的利益。雖然公司高層禁止使用上述添加劑，但地方分公司的管理人員、檢驗人員、農民和中間商依舊我行我素，最終釀成了丑聞。

????食品安全的核心在于監督。食品公司必須檢查供應商是否有投機取巧的行為；餐廳必須監督食品公司是否正直守法；政府監管部門必須監督企業是否遵守了每一個步驟。

????在當今中國，每一個監督環節都存在缺失。大型食品加工商發現很難確認全國各地小農場供應的豬和雞是否按照標準飼養；麥當勞、肯德基、星巴克（Starbucks）和其他餐廳則沒有對食品加工商進行充分的監督；而中國食品監督官員人手不足，僅靠政府力量很難對所有步驟進行監督。

????來自美國農業部（U.S. Department of Agriculture）和荷蘭瓦赫寧根大學中國代表處（Wageningen University Office in China）的H?弗雷德里克?蓋爾與胡定寰在一份學術論文中寫道：“如果食品安全只是一個簡單的工程問題，那么，過去兩個世紀的科學發現和技術，足以保護中國食品消費者避免前人經歷過的危險?！?/p>

????但兩位研究者認為，食品安全不僅與先進科技有關?！半m然中國擁有先進的實驗室和衛生設備，但中國很難對組織結構進行完善。在實現食品安全的過程中，完善組織結構所帶來的作用，往往會被忽視。”

????你可以將問題歸咎于中國的學習曲線，認為這是在35年前經濟對外開放之后，中國必須要經歷的痛。但中國出現的問題也在影響著整個世界：中國是世界最大的海產品出口國；美國進口的蘋果汁，超過70%來自中國；中國是世界十大蔬菜水果出口國之一。換言之，中國食品行業發生的問題，將直接引起全球消費者的擔憂。

????同時，美國餐廳在中國面臨著不確定的前景。

????本周，廣州市一家肯德基的工作人員表示，最大的問題已經解決?；蛟S他說的不錯。一位值班經理表示，上海電視臺曝光之后的幾天，業務量大幅減少，但現在已經恢復到接近正常水平。她說：“別擔心。我們的工作人員也在吃這些食品?！?/p>

????但大眾消費者是否會重拾信心，她可能無從得知。(財富中文網)

????翻譯：劉進龍/汪皓

????American fast food, once a refuge amid China’s food scandals, is joining the ranks of the disgraced.

????Early this week, McDonald’s locations across Beijing, Shanghai and the country were only offering fish burgers after the Chinese subsidiary of OSI, the McDonald’s and KFC-parent Yum! Brands supplier based in Illinois, said it would recall all meat products made at its Shanghai subsidiary.

????The situation has been snowballing since last week, when a local Chinese TV report showed employees using rotten or expired products for ground meat. Authorities shut down the plant and Shanghai police detained five employees.

????This is the second scandal in as many years to hit KFC in China, and insiders are seriously asking whether its reputation has been irreparably hurt. McDonald’s, meanwhile, was a standard bearer for food safety in China and its meat supplier OSI was considered one of the world’s best.

????“As a global supplier of protein, [OSI] claimed to have higher standards,” said Richard Brubaker, founder of consultancy Collective Responsibility and an adjunct professor of sustainability at the China-Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “They weren’t proven to be any better.”

????The blame for the latest food scandal in China lies squarely on McDonald’s and the rest of the American brands. When suppliers like OSI’s Shanghai subsidiary skirt the rules, American companies are supposed to catch the problem and fix it because they know China’s regulators can’t keep up.

????China’s food system is highly fragmented—there are a couple hundred million small farms in the country and livestock is almost as scattered. Chinese regulations are improving but officials still can’t schedule enough inspections. “In China they are certainly outmanned,” says Brubaker, who’s been on inspection tours when officials have looked exhausted and exasperated. “If you know the government is not up to par, it’s on you,” he says.

????McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and other American brands sourcing from the OSI plant held themselves to higher standards in China. Now what? For one, the belief that American fast food is much safer has vanished. Apologies are only a necessary starting point. They won’t, by themselves, restore customers’ trust.

????OSI President and chief operating officer David McDonald acknowledged as much on Monday by promising a thorough internal investigation and by parachuting a whole new team of managers for China.

????The news follows a long trend of food scares in China. A tainted milk scandal in 2008 caused six infant deaths; KFC was found in 2012 to have used heavy doses of antibiotics on chickens it sold in the country; 15,000 dead pigs were found drifting in the a river in early 2013, part of an illegal pork trade.

????But China’s systemic food safety failures aren’t without precedent: if you go back a century, Britain and the U.S. overcame the same abysmal food records.

????Britain’s rapid urbanization in the 1800s meant getting food into cities took precedent over questions of whether the stuff was fit for consumption. Britain also went through its own milk scandal linked to infant deaths in the early 1900s. At the same time, U.S. writer Upton Sinclair shed light on the grim practices in Chicago’s meatpacking district supporting the country’s skyrocketing meat consumption and meat exports—reports that led to Europe occasionally banning U.S. meat and enacting burdensome inspection standards.

????The latest scandal in China in many ways closely follows previous scandals there, maybe most closely with the “pork powder” incident in 2011. Then, Chinese journalists exposed the routine addition of previously banned additives clenbuterol and ractopamine by China’s largest pork producer. It was a case of local managers acting in their own self-interest instead of the interests of their customers. Managers from the local subsidiary, inspectors, farmers and traders were all in on the scandal even through the company’s bosses had banned the additives.

????At its core, food safety is about verification. Food companies must verify their suppliers aren’t cutting corners; restaurants must verify the food companies are upstanding; and government regulators must verify that every step is followed.

????In China today, each stage of verification is lacking. Large food processors find it difficult to verify that hogs and chickens from small farms across China are raised according to standards; restaurants like McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks, and others aren’t doing enough to inspect those processors; and China’s food officials are so lacking in numbers that the government can’t itself verify the steps.

????“If food safety were simply an engineering problem, the scientific discoveries and techniques developed over the past two centuries would shield consumers of China’s food from the hazards experienced by earlier generations,” wrote H. Frederick Gale and Dinghuan Hu of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Wageningen University Office in China, in an academic paper.

????But food safety is about more than advanced science, say the researchers. “While China has access to advanced laboratory and sanitation equipment, organizational improvements that played an often-overlooked role in achieving food safety have been difficult to implement in China.”

????You could chalk it all up to China’s learning curve and conclude these are painful incidents the country has to experience after only opening its economy to the world 35 years ago. Except that what goes on in China affects the world: China is the world’s largest exporter of seafood; more than 70% of apple juice imported by the U.S. comes from China; the country ranks in the world top 10 of vegetable and fruit exports. In other words, what happens in the Chinese food industry is a direct concern for consumers around the world.

????Meanwhile, the U.S. restaurants in China face uncertain prospects.

????At a KFC in the southern city of Guangzhou this week, workers said the biggest problems had passed. They may have been right. A team leader on duty said business trailed off for a few days following the Shanghai TV report before returning to nearly normal. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “The staff is eating the food.”

????But she couldn’t know whether the same masses of customers would again too.