McDonald's: Price changes had no dye link
By Wu Chong, Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-02-28 07:58

McDonald's China denied its latest price adjustments on Wednesday are related to Sudan I, the carcinogenic food dye found in some of McDonald's products in the United Kingdom earlier this month.

The famous fast food brand reduced prices for several products sold on the Chinese mainland including its chicken fillet burger and cheese quarterpounder by an average 24 per cent beginning February 23. That was two days after the UK food quality control watchdog recalled some of McDonald's products.

In the meantime, some of the gargantuan fast food provider's product prices have actually increased a tad.

It was on the same day when McDonald's China adopted new prices that the nation's General Administration of Quality Supervi-sion, Inspection and Quarantine division, launched a nationwide campaign to inspect suspicious foods that may contain Sudan I. It said it would ban items that include the dye.

"The decision to adjust some prices was made after a painstaking market survey and aims to better cater to our customers," said Chen Yun, manager of the McDonald's Chang'an outlet in Beijing.

Of the four sauces used by McDonald's which were reported in the UK to possibly contain Sudan I, mustard is the only also sold on the Chinese mainland, said the company.

Responding to some reports that McDonald's outlets in Guangdong have ceased selling the firm's mustard, an executive from Guangdong Sanyuan McDonald's Co Ltd yesterday said the report is false.

All the mustard in Guangdong's McDonald outlets was produced on the Chinese mainland and contains no carcinogenic dye, said the executive who declined to be named. None of the sauces and other products that are being sold in Guangdong's McDonald's outlets are imported from the United Kingdom and European Union where the dye has been found.

He believed the dye will do little to harm the business of the McDonald's outlets in the province that borders Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

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