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Shanghai (AFP) - A scandal involving expired meat sold by a China unit of US food supplier OSI Group spread to Japan Tuesday, as McDonald's confirmed that the now shut factory provided Chicken McNuggets to its restaurants. Shanghai authorities on Sunday shut an OSI plant -- a supplier to McDonald's and KFC in China -- for mixing out-of-date meat with fresh product, re-labelling expired goods and other quality problems following an investigative report by a local television station. A Tokyo-based spokesman for McDonald's Japan told AFP the restaurant chain had sourced about 20 percent of its McNuggets from the Shanghai...

McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc. are facing a new food safety scare in China, denting the fast food giants’ efforts to shore up reputations and businesses that were hurt by a 2012 safety scandal in one of their biggest markets. McDonald’s and KFC-parent Yum apologized to customers on Monday after Chinese regulators shut a local meat supplier following a TV report that showed workers picking up meat from a factory floor, as well as mixing meat beyond its expiration date with fresh meat. The firms said they’ll stop using the supplier. The report, which focused on McDonald’s and Yum,...

We think Cheryl Cole’s missed a trick with her quickie wedding on Macaroni Beach in Mustique. Just look at what she could have had – her very own McWedding (Drive Thru or marry in). Yes, McDonald’s has the answer for all those normcore brides out there. Well, at least the ones willing to travel to Hong Kong. The fast food chain has been slowly expanding its wedding party program since 2011 and now boasts 11 restaurants that double up as budget wedding venues, all in Hong Kong. And not only can you have the wedding ceremony there, they’ll also host...

She’s got copper-colored locks, a peppy personality, an ethnically diverse group of friends, and she knows how to talk millions of Americans into buying a Monterey Ranch Crispy Chicken Sandwich. She’s the Wendy’s Girl. The actress who has played the all-knowing, slightly kooky burger lover for two years is a 28-year-old Alabama native named Morgan Smith Goodwin. (She added her second surname after marrying Dave Goodwin, manager of New York City restaurant Gramercy Tavern.) And while her character has remained nameless in the fast food chain’s TV commercials, it’s not a far stretch to assume she’s Wendy, the freckled little...

Last week, Burger King unveiled the greatest monument to ad decadence this year (so far): The Proud Whopper. What, pray tell, is a Proud Whopper? It's a whopper with a rainbow-colored wrapper. Outside of that, it's identical to a normal whopper—and that's the point Burger King is trying to make. When the wrapper is opened, it states “we are all the same inside.” Just so, an asexual person or a gay person is the same on the inside as a straight person; we're all blood, guts, and bones with sinews holding it all together. A Burger King PR rep will...

The Habit Burger and In-N-Out lead the pack. Chick-fil-A also has lots to squawk about. Turns out nobody’s loving it. The standard McDonald’s hamburger — the one that claims to satisfy “billions and billions” — finished dead last in a new Consumer Reports taste test. The Hamburglar’s favorite meal earned a score of just 5.8 out of 10 from the magazine’s readers, putting it far behind West Coast chains The Habit Burger Grill and In-N-Out Burger, which scored 8.1 out of 10 and 8 out of 10, respectively. The top fast food burger available locally was Five Guys Burgers and...

We McDonald’s fans always suspected (the campiness of “the King” was a dead giveaway) and now, at long last, confirmation. Good for you, Whopper. Be who you are. Good call by Ace too in remembering the SNL “Schmitt’s Gay” joke ad from the Farley/Sandler era. American politics has been mostly a function of identity politics for awhile now. It’s past time for American fast food to follow suit. Besides, there’s already a “straight burger,” isn’t there? A Twitter buddy, seizing on the idea of “identity” burgers, floated the idea of an atheist burger. To which Andy Levy replied: Allahpundit @allahpundit...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced in the Federal Register that it will “aggressively deploy cease and desist orders against businesses whose activities are a detriment to the nation’s well-being.” For the moment this new authority is “interim.” It is expected to become final on July 18. “For too long the Government has sat idly by while businesses have foisted unsafe and unhealthy products on an unsuspecting public,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray charged. “Under Section 1053(c) of the Dodd-Frank Act, we are empowered to protect the general public by ordering offending businesses to cease and desist.” Two industries that are...

Up and down the foodservice spectrum, breakfast is heating up. Here are some recent developments: •Taco Bell introduced a breakfast menu trading on ubiquitous locations and a massive promo of the Waffle Taco. The Bell blitzed social media and took direct aim at rival McDonald’s, including an ad campaign making fun of Ronald the clown. •McDonald’s countered with an offer for free morning cup of McCafe and started promoting its McGriddle pancake wrapped breakfast sandwich. •Not to be forgotten, runner up, Burger King took a different approach, and announced it would serve burgers as well as breakfast fare each morning....

… In 1979, teenagers held 26% of all low-wage jobs, while adults aged 25-64 made up less than half of such workers, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which analyzed the low wage workforce over a 30-year span. Today, only 12% of low paying jobs are held by teenagers, while adults make up 60% of them. Also, only 20% of such workers had attended some college in 1979. Today, it’s 33%. […] A key argument behind the latest wave of strikes to raise wages to $15 an hour is that fast food workers these days are no...

CKE Restaurants' roots began in California roughly seven decades ago, but you won't see the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's expanding there much anymore. Related Stories What's causing what company CEO Andy Puzder describes as "very little growth" in the state? In part it's because "the minimum wage is so high so it's harder to come up with profitable business models," Puzder said in an interview. The state's minimum wage is set to rise to $9 in July, making it among the nation's highest, and $10 by January 2016. In cities in other states where the minimum wage...

If your idea of a perfect weekend is staring at your TV and salivating while watching a beef brisket being smoked, you should be in Duluth, Minn., Saturday. Starting at 2 p.m. ET and wrapping up at 3 a.m. ET on Sunday, local TV station My9 will be airing a non-stop commercial for Arby's smokehouse brisket sandwich. “As you’d expect, the idea around airing a commercial for 13 hours required that we cast a pretty wide net,” Arby’s spokesman Jeff Baker told the Duluth News Tribune. “There were very few folks who could do this the right way, and we...

Hundreds of McDonald's workers and community activists staged a protest Wednesday near the fast-food chain's headquarters in Oak Brook, seeking a wage increase to at least $15 per hour for employees.

It started with a brief walkout at a few restaurants in New York City back in November 2012, but on Thursday the campaign against low pay at America's fast food restaurants morphed into a global push. By 9 a.m., the organizing group FastFoodGlobal.org reported that two McDonalds outlets in New York City and one in Boston were shut down. Hours ago, young workers in the Philippines staged a singing and dancing flash mob inside a downtown Manila McDonalds during the morning rush hour. Their choice of music was the song "Let It Go" from Frozen. When the news from abroad...

Greenville, Pitt County-Fast-food workers in Greenville held a strike on Thursday demanding a raise in pay. Strikers want a $15 an hour minimum wage. The fast-food employees from McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King also want to form a union without retaliation.

The fast-food worker strikes are expanding to more U.S. cities and going global. Workers in up to 150 cities across the country are planning to strike on May 15, according to labor organizers. The movement is also headed overseas, with plans for workers to join protests in 33 countries. On Wednesday, the workers announced the protests outside a McDonald's in New York City, and delivered a letter that called on the fast food giant to raise wages and respect workers' rights worldwide. However, security guards didn't allow the workers to bring the letter inside the restaurant. So, they posted the...

Jack in the Box, a popular fast-food restaurant chain, has followed Starbucks' unfortunate lead in limiting its customers' Second Amendment rights. Friday, the company announced it would start enforcing its no-firearms-in-stores policy. Jack in the Box’s Vice President of Corporate Communications Brian Luscomb released this statement: “The presence of guns inside a restaurant could create an uncomfortable situation for our guests and employees and lead to unintended consequences.” The company's decision comes a day after gun control group Moms Demand Action launched a petition to pressure the restaurant to enforce the policy. They started the campaign in response to...

Chick-fil-A is the best fast food chain in America. The chicken joint won the "best overall" category in Business Insider's Fast Food Reader's Choice awards. Chick-fil-A, which is planning a massive national expansion, beat out competitors like Chipotle and McDonald's. The chicken chain, which now outsells KFC despite having a fraction of the locations, is popular for many reasons. 1. Chicken sandwich This chicken sandwich is amazing. According to Chick-fil-A, it's "a boneless breast of chicken seasoned to perfection, hand-breaded, pressure cooked in 100% refined peanut oil and served on a toasted, buttered bun with dill pickle chips." While no...

Americans are consuming less fast food and causing chains like McDonald's, Burger King and KFC to ramp up their international expansion. Restaurants have had to come up with some pretty creative menu offerings to cater to local tastes. We reviewed the menus overseas for a handful of the world's top fast food chains, and compiled some of our favorites. Too bad you can't find them on menus in the U.S. Pizza Hut's Crown Crust Pizzas Where: Middle East What it is: Pizza Hut sells a variety of Crown Crust pizzas with various meats cooked inside the crust, including mini cheeseburgers,...

Chick-fil-A is finally crossing the road. The iconic chicken chain, as well-known for its conservative heritage as its savory eats, is recalibrating its moral and culinary compass. It wants to go from old school to almost cool. It wants to evolve from a place where gays once picketed to a place where they'll feel comfortable going to eat. It wants to broaden the brand as it expands nationally and plows into the Millennial-driven urban arena. Above all: it wants to be a serious player on fast-food's biggest stage. USA TODAY was exclusively invited inside to visit the company's sprawling, wooded...