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China shuts down ice cream maker, citing poor hygiene

Chinese authorities have shut down a kitchen used by leading US ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs after finding it had failed to meet sanitation standards and lacked a permit, state media said yesterday.

Inspectors in the southern city of Shenzhen destroyed the food products and sealed the site, which makes ice-cream cakes for Haagen-Dazs' five retail outlets in the city, the Xinhua news agency said.

According to Xinhua and other state media reports, inspectors last Thursday found the tiny workshop had a toilet next to a food processing room, when local sanitation rules dictate they should be at least 25m apart.

Workers had also failed to wear masks and gloves, as required under local regulations, and the sanitation permit produced by Haagen-Dazs did not apply to the food processing area in question but to another site, the report said.

Local industry and commerce bureau officials were cited as saying it was "very hard" to guarantee the quality of food given the sanitary conditions.

"We'd like to apologize to consumers for what happened in our Shenzhen company," general manager Zhu Xi said. "We'll beef up management and go on offering consumers fine-quality products and services."

Haagen-Dazs yesterday said it would be issuing a statement.

Zhu said the staff thought the sanitation permit could be used at the workshop. Customers were promised a refund.

The owner, US food giant General Mills, was quoted by the Shanghai Daily as saying it was investigating the reports, and that the company's retail outlets in Shenzhen had stopped selling the ice-cream products for now.

Haagen-Dazs, which originated in the US in the early 1920s, entered the China market in 1996, where it now has 48 branches.
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