A meat supplier located in Shanghai apologized and promised a swift response after McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc. (parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell), ended their long-standing relationships with the Aurora, Ill.-based organization. The move was prompted by allegations that the Shanghai Husi Food Co. (a Chinese plant owned by OSI), sold expired chicken and beef to the fast food giants.

The meat supplier released a statement expressing its apologies to McDonald’s and Yum Brands, as well as the many customers who were exposed to the potentially hazardous food. Even as it shared its unhappiness with the facility’s poor decision and took full responsibility for the plant’s actions, OSI maintained that it believes the media pinpointed a chance occurrence and not the norm. The company promptly formed an investigation team that will gain access to the operations and work with national and international food inspectors as it seeks to get a full picture of what went wrong in Shanghai.

Meat Supplier Causes Big Food, Big Headache

OSI has been a produce and meat supplier in the Chinese marketplace since 1991 and is one of the top meat processing companies in the U.S. With $6.1 billion in sales last year, the long-term effect the current controversy will have on the company’s dealings within eight Chinese cities has yet to be determined. However,  the end of the 20+ year relationship OSI built with McDonald’s, and six-year connection with Yum Brands, will deal a major blow to the meat supplier’s bottom line. To add to the contractually grim news, China’s official Xinhua News Agency is reporting that the Chinese government suspended operations of the Shanghai Husi plant. This has neither been confirmed nor denied by officials.

Heidi Baker, a McDonald’s spokeswoman, stated that if the reports were true, this lapse would be “completely unacceptable to McDonald’s.” Whether the report is confirmed or not, McDonald’s has already changed meat suppliers in order to continue operations for its 2,000+ Chinese locations. The fast food giant was already dealing with flagging sales over the past year in its Chinese stores.

For Yum Brands, the OSI issue comes in the wake of its recent experience with food safety in China. The company was exposed for its use of high concentrations of growth hormone in its chickens. The news caused sales to dip dramatically, but it experienced a rise in same-store sales of 15%, with KFC being the primary growth restaurant. Yum Brands needs China — the nation equals 50% of total revenue for the mega food corporation.

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A blog by the name of “Always Eat Good” should only highlight Waffle House if the restaurant went to a lighter menu, began using organic products or closed, right? Do not get me wrong — I have spent many a late night at the local Waffle House and have eaten more scattered, covered and smothered hash browns than I should admit. But maybe its nice to see how good inner health can be found in a place so derided for its unhealthy food options. Yet, even this story could have gone a far less savory direction.

Shaina Brown waitresses at a North Carolina Waffle House, and on Mother’s Day, a man did what people only do at five-star restaurants (at least that’s what we thought until now): he pulled out his credit card, paid and left $1000 for Brown and asked her to give the woman at a nearby table an additional $500. If you’re keeping score, that’s a total of $1500 in cash and prizes!

The man left thereafter, and Brown faced a harsh reality that was out of her control: Waffle House does not allow its staff to accept large credit card tips. Corporate management instituted the policy as a safeguard against patrons who later regretted their generous decisions and sought refunds. The company does allow large cash and check tips. I have my guesses for why they think some of their eaters might not be in the best state of mind for financial decisions, but we’ll leave that for another day.

Waffle House — Good D’jour

The tip had all the makings of a Mother’s Day miracle for the single mom of three, but Brown knew the rules and properly adhered to them. Social media erupted with criticism all around, but is that really surprising? Waffle House was taken to task for its lack of charity. The tipper was criticized for putting such a burden on the waitress. Company-wide staff was questioned for their willingness to accept large credit card tips from customers. (Writer’s note: as a person who worked in restaurants, the last critique is the silliest — of course they are willing to accept the money, it’s the basis of their livelihood! Come on @meanpersonwhoneedsabetterhobbythantrolling.)

Now before you swear off Waffle House forever (though that may not be a horrible idea for those who are avoiding gluten, cholesterol-rich and fried food diets), the tipper later followed the restaurant’s policy and paid with a check. So Shaina Brown is $1000 richer and Waffle House waiters and waitresses around the country are being a little nicer to late-night/early-morning customers.

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Video Overview

It might be going overboard to say that skipping breakfast is the way to go all the time, but University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers have found that tying weight loss together with breakfast may be unnecessary. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that individuals who were attempting to lose weight were no less successful when they skipped breakfast than those who ate it.

Breakfast Study and Its Influence on the Future of Dieting

UAB weight loss experts split a group of a little more than 300 healthy, but overweight and obese adults, into three sub-groups: breakfast eaters, non-eaters and a group of both that received nutrition advice that never mentioned breakfast. These individuals spent the next 16 weeks fulfilling their roles, and in the end, weight loss was not affected by missing or eating breakfast.

The researchers hope this study can continue the ongoing conversation concerning what really matters when people are trying to lose weight. There are certain standards we believe to be true for our dieting needs, and for the longest, breakfast has been seen as critical. This follows other recent studies that question gluten-free diets, give pause on the consumption of red wine, endorse the benefits of a daily coffee and the promotion of pizza for every meal (okay, maybe the last one was more wishful thinking than anything — however, there was a time when pizza was viewed as the perfect solution to fulfilling food pyramid requirements).

Before you throw out all of your breakfast items and swear off the “most important meal of the day,” you may want to review what other researchers report on the subject. Plus, the findings relate to dieting, so if you are pleased with your weight, then you may not have to say goodbye to Tony the Tiger, Mrs. Butterworth and the rest of the breakfast gang!

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The next time you get a tummy ache after eating at a local restaurant, you may want to reach for the pink stomach medicine and your cellphone. (Definitely grab the medicine first!)

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has announced food inspectors may soon incorporate regular use of app-based and web-driven restaurant review sites, like Yelp, in their investigations for potential health code violations. With the assistance of citizen reviewers, the new measure intends to gain a larger view of the food-related-illness landscape from the sick people themselves.

The CDC estimates that 48 million people become sick by way of contaminated, poorly-handled and under-cooked food, each year. But not every case is reported, and this new method could potentially add thousands more to these annual figures through a modern take on food inspection.

Originally tested in New York City, the program considers particular keywords reviewers use when relating their restaurant experiences. In this particular study, people who used terms like vomit, sick and diarrhea were 50% more likely to have an actual case of food poisoning. Food inspectors from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene also made direct contact with reviewers who posted about NYC restaurants in 2012 and 2013. From this sampling, the department added 16 official food-borne illness patients to their totals.

It may be difficult for inspectors across the country to implement something similar, but the CDC is being more proactive in its search for leads in its pursuit to protect the health and well-being of the general public. Major cities, including Chicago and Salt Lake City, have introduced kindred measures for their residents. The job of incorporating social reviewers into the food inspection process hampers its own effectiveness — the volume of follow-up, as well as the lack of information on the sick reviewers themselves, is severely limiting when advancing or closing cases. However, the CDC sees this idea as perfect when it’s in combination with other tools at their disposal.

The post The Reviews are In: Your Restaurant Made Us Sick! appeared first on Always Eat Good.