KFC supplier used excessive additives in chicken feed

The statement of the Shanghai Food Safety Office comes after China Central Television reported earlier this week that some chicken farms in Shandong province feed the birds with excessive amounts of antibiotics to reduce their death rate and shorten their growing period.

A chicken farm in Shandong

Animal nutrition experts said that chemical compound medicines, most antibiotics and hormones, are banned from being fed to stock and poultry.

The experts added that some chickens are fed large doses of antibiotics because many Chinese farmers don't have the money or want to spend the money to raise the birds in larger and cleaner pens.

The CCTV report said that the chickens — which had inferior health conditions and reached full growth within about 40 days — were sold to the Liuhe Group and Yingtai Co, both KFC suppliers.

After the CCTV report triggered public concern over the safety of the birds supplied to KFC, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration carried out tests on Tuesday after taking 32 samples of raw chicken products from a logistics center belonging to Yum Brands in Shanghai. The results of the tests are not known yet.

Severe punishments will be handed out if any violation of food safety laws is found, the Shanghai Food Safety Office said.

This year, Yum Brands sent a total of 283 batches of samples for test, which didn't include the products from Liuhe, according to the Xinhua News Agency.