Russia's main consumer watchdog has temporarily shut four McDonald's restaurants in Moscow as part of an investigation into food standards.
If you ask me I don't care let all countries in the world shout down all McDonald's restaurants in the world.
Watchdog Rospotrebnadzor claimed the restaurants had breached "numerous" sanitary laws.
McDonald's said it was looking at the complaints, adding its "top priority is to provide safe and quality products".
The watchdog also announced checks at McDonald's in the Urals, in central Russia, said the Itar-Tass news agency.
The Moscow closures and the unscheduled Urals checks come amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over the crisis in the Ukraine.
Previously, when diplomatic tensions have been high, the regulator has controversially banned products including wine from Georgia, cheese from Ukraine and apples from Poland, according to BBC Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford.
Earlier this month, Russia imposed a "full embargo" on food imports from the EU, US and some other Western countries, in response to sanctions over Ukraine.
The regulator's actions in Moscow and the Urals are part of an ongoing investigation into McDonald's food standards in Russia.
In July the watchdog filed a lawsuit in Moscow urging the restaurant chain to withdraw certain products.
McDonald's said that restaurants on Pushkin Square, Manezh Square and Prospect Mira in Moscow had been temporarily closed, and said it wanted to "re-open the restaurants as soon as possible".
"We will continue taking care of our employees and will do our best to continue the success of McDonald's business in Russia," the firm added.
Quentin Peel, former Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times, told the BBC that the checks and closures were "propaganda".
McDonald's opened in Moscow 24 years ago, and has been seen as a symbol of Western capitalism in Russia, Mr Peel said.
There are 71 McDonald’s restaurants in 20 cities in the Moscow region.
Rospotrebnadzor is also investigating McDonald’s in the Ural region, including big cities like Ekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk.
“The checks are being done due to the city residents’ complaints about the quality of the products. They aren’t done in every restaurant of the franchise, only in those customers complained about,” Natalia Lukyantseva, Rospotrebnadzor secretary in Ekaterinburg, explained.
No results from this probe are currently available. And in Chelyabinsk, according to the watchdog’s head in the city, Anatoly Semyonov: “Yes, we’re conducting a probe. It’s in our plans, but there are no results yet. We have two McDonald’s restaurants,” he told the Interfax news agency in the Ural region.
Checks are also underway in central Russia – apart from the capital itself and Moscow region, this covers 16 regions.
“We have a letter –an order from the federal Rospotrebnadzor agency. We’ve already started the probe. The results will be ready with the lab research that is now going on. There’s been a selection of microbiological, sanitary-chemical research,” a representative for the consumer watchdog in the city of Ivanovo told Ria Novosti.
The results are due in about three weeks.
In the south of Russia, the Krasnodar region (home of the Olympic city of Sochi), is set to begin evaluating McDonald’s restaurants from next week, said Irina Voronkova, the regional Rospotrebnadzor representative.
“We have 11 McDonald’s restaurants in the region – four in Krasnodar, five in Sochi, one in Novorossiysk, and one in Armavir. We’re preparing documents to begin checks that will take place next week,” she told Ria Novosti.
Voronkova added that the probes had been ordered by the federal department of the consumer watchdog.
“The activity of three restaurants in Moscow has been temporarily halted. We’re now studying the essence of the submitted claims to determine the actions we need to undertake to urgently re-open the restaurants for visitors,” Svetlana Polyakova, McDonald’s PR director in Russia, told RT.
“It is evident that our main priority is that we would like to continue to provide the services and the products of quality for our customers. Also, I would like to say that we will continue to care for our employees and will do everything possible to continue our successful operations in Russia,” she added.
Despite the probes, McDonald’s isn’t giving up on its plans to open restaurants across Russia – especially in Siberia.
Three restaurants are slated for the large regional center of Novosibirsk and two in Omsk.
Three restaurants are slated for the large regional center of Novosibirsk and two in Omsk.
However, Russian Vice Premier Olga Golodetz declared that there are no plans to do a “total probe” in Russia, and checks are carried out “according to some identified cases of breaches in hygiene.”
The first checks on McDonald’s franchises took place in the northwestern city of Veliky Novgorod in May.
“The Caesar roll and vegetable salad was been found to contain microbe pollution with E.Coli bacteria and 10 times the safe level of microbes,” the watchdog said at the time in a statement. “This means that the staff breached personal hygiene rules, and the corporate sanitary disinfection regime.”
Source:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28867784
http://rt.com/news/181888-mcdonalds-probe-russia-regions/
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