Still being served

As of Wednesday, the McNuggets were still served by the fast-food chain across China. The fast-food giant, which entered China in 1990, has developed a broad client base here, with 1,135 restaurants on the mainland by the end of last year.

In a bid to calm the nerves of consumers, McDonald's China said in a statement Tuesday that the use of the two additives in fried chicken pieces meets Chinese food safety standards and denied that they can lead to any health problems.

McDonald's Japan also serves chicken with the additives, which meet Japanese safety standards, Kazuyuki Hagiwara, a company spokesman said Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.

A salesperson in an outlet on Xiaozhuang Road, in Beijing's Chaoyang district, told the Global Times that the sales volume of the chicken nuggets has not been much affected.

However, customers felt differently. A woman surnamed Liu, dining with her 11-year-old son in the outlet, told the Global Times that she didn't order the McNuggets after she heard about the report and wouldn't order them in the future.

Zhang Mengjun, a middle school student, said she would give up McNuggets, even though she likes them, and suggested the company state food ingredients more clearly.

An online survey on sina.com, a major news portal, showed 87 percent of more than 14,000 web users argued that the chemicals contained in McNuggets are risky to health, and they definitely won't buy the nuggets or similar products in the future.

(Global Times July 8, 2010)