CHINESE FOOD SCANDALS THAT STUNNED THE WORLD.

CARDBOARD SIOPAO SCANDAL

Chinese street vendors soak cardboard in industrial chemicals to soften it. Then it is chopped and mixed with pork fat and flavored powder. The mixture is stuffed in dough and steamed.
CNN:



In 2007, according to China Daily (A STATE-OWNED MEDIA), Beijing police have detained a television reporter for fabricating an investigative story about steamed buns stuffed with cardboard at a time when China's food safety is under intense international scrutiny.

A report directed by Beijing TV and played on state-run national broadcaster China Central Television that time said an unlicensed snack vendor in eastern Beijing was selling steamed dumplings stuffed with cardboard soaked in caustic soda and seasoned with pork flavouring.

Beijing authorities said investigations had found that an employee surnamed Zi had fabricated the report to garner "higher audience ratings."

MELAMINE MILK SCANDAL

In 2009. There was also a Melamine Milk Scandal in China. Around 53,000 Chinese children and infants have sickened by Melamine-tainted dairy products. 40,000 were treated as out-patients, 14,000 were Treated in various hospitals in China. And 4 infants have died because of this. Infusing the watered down milk with Melamine falsely increases the “protein” content of Milk, thereby fooling the Milk manufacturers.

FAKE CHICKEN EGGS SCANDAL

China is also famous in Fake Chicken eggs scandal. People discovered fake chicken eggs being produced and sold in China. Fake egg’s shell is made of calcium carbonate. Egg yolk and egg white are made of sodium alginate, alum, gelatin, eatable calcium chloride and then add water and food coloring. First pour a set amount of sodium alginate into warm water and mix it into egg white like shape, then mix it with gelatin together with benzoic acid, alum and other chemicals to make the egg white. Egg yolk is just adding lemon yellow food coloring. Together with calcium chloride to form egg mixture into the mold to produce the egg membrane. Egg shell is made of paraffin wax, gypsum powder, calcium carbonate and other materials.
Article: http://www.chinahush.com/2009/04/24/how-to-identify-fake-chicken-eggs/

Video:
FAKE RICE NOODLES SCANDAL

In 2010, Large amounts of rice noodles made with rotten grain and potentially carcinogenic additives are being sold in south China, state press said.

Up to 50 factories in south China's Dongguan city near Hong Kong are producing about 500,000 kilogrammes (1.1 million pounds) of tainted rice noodles a day using stale and mouldy grain, the Beijing Youth Daily said that time.

FAKE RICE SCANDAL

Last year (2011), according to the Korean-language “Weekly Hong Kong” (which many Vietnam websites are referencing as well), Singapore media claim that fake rice is being distributed in the Chinese town of Taiyuan, in Shaanxi province. This “rice” is a mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plastic. It is formed by mixing the potatoes and sweet potatoes into the shape of rice grains, then adding industrial synthetic resins. Since the rice does not behave like normal rice, it stays hard even after it has been cooked. Such synthetic resins can also be very harmful if consumed.

A Chinese Restaurant Association official said that eating three bowls of this fake rice would be like eating one plastic bag. Due to the seriousness of the matter, he added that there they conducted an investigation of factories alleged to be producing the rice.
Article: http://www.weeklyhk.com/news.php?code&mode=view&num=10793

BLUE GLOWING PORK SCANDAL

In the same year, A woman whopurchased a kilogram of pork from a wet market on Yang Gao North Road.

Afterward, she placed the leftover pork on a small table in the kitchen. At 11pm, Miss Chen got out of bed to use the toilet, and suddenly noticed a faint blue glow coming from the kitchen, and that the bright blue glow was coming from the pork itself.

Another resident from Changsha city one after another discovered that the pork they had purchased from supermarkets emitted a blue glow at night. After this phenomenon was reported by the media, the Changsha Food Safety Commission mobilized the efforts of the business, livestock, industry and commerce, health, and other departments and at the same time invited experts and professors to participate in the investigation.

Through scientific bacteria cultivation separation, experts discovered “blue glow pork” was caused by secondary bacterial contamination. Shanghai Health Supervision Department food experts say the pork that has been contaminated by phosphorescent bacteria.
Article: http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/blue-glowing-pork-meat-found-in-shanghai.html

FAKE WINE SCANDAL

Last month (March 2012) according to REUTERS report, Master of Wine Jeannie Cho Lee tasted fake wine at a Hong Kong dinner party.

"What we're seeing across the country is a proliferation of knock-offs and copycats and outright counterfeit as the imported wine industry really explodes in this market," said Ian Ford of Summergate Fine Wines in Shanghai, adding that counterfeiters are taking advantage of inexperienced Chinese consumers.
Article: http://www.globaltimes.cn/china/society/2010-12/604367.html

Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/12/uk-china-wine-fake-idUSLNE82B01M20120312

Starbucks : An International Business that gave us 1. 2 Grades

Today we are very happy, we got 1.2 Grade in International business for  our Company Investigative Project

This a partial requirements for our subject International BusinessDo click the slide to know about Starbucks 

Name of Company:

Starbucks Corporation 

New Mission and Vision Statement

"To inspire and nurture the human spirit - One person, One cup, and One Neighborhood at a time."

Company’s  Summary of Information :

Type	Public (NASDAQ: SBUX)
Industry	Restaurants Retail coffee and tea Retail beverages Entertainment
Founded	Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington(March 30, 1971)
Founder(s)	Jerry Baldwin Gordon Bowker Zev Siegl
Headquarters	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Number of locations	16,858 (FY 2010)
Area served	50 countries
Products	Whole bean coffee Boxed tea Made-to-order beverages Bottled beverages Baked goods Merchandise Frappuccino beverages Smoothies
Services	Coffee
Revenue	US$10.71 billion (FY 2010)
Operating income	US$1.42 billion (FY 2010)
Net income	US$945.6 million (FY 2010)
Total assets	US$6.38 billion (FY 2010)
Total equity	US$3.68 billion (FY 2010)
Employees	137,000 (2010)
Subsidiaries	Starbucks Coffee Company Tazo Tea Company Seattle's Best Coffee Torrefazione Italia Hear Music Ethos Water
Website	starbucks.com

Short History:

Starbucks began in 1971 when three academics—English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker—opened a store called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice in the touristy Pikes Place Market in Seattle. The three partners shared a love of fine coffees and exotic teas and believed they could build a clientele in Seattle much like that which had already emerged in the San Francisco Bay area. Each invested $1,350 and borrowed another $5,000 from a bank to open the Pikes Place store. Baldwin, Siegel, and Bowker chose the name Starbucks in honor of Starbuck, the coffee-loving first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and because they thought the name evoked the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders. The new company's logo, designed by an artist friend, was a two-tailed mermaid encircled by the store's name.

The Store Expansion Strategy

In 1992 and 1993 Starbucks developed a three-year geographic expansion strategy that targeted areas which not only had favorable demographic profiles but which also could be serviced and supported by the company's operations infrastructure. For each targeted region, Starbucks selected a large city to serve as a "hub"; teams of professionals were located in hub cities to support the goal of opening 20 or more stores in the hub in the first two years. Once stores blanketed the hub, then additional stores were opened in smaller, surrounding "spoke" areas in the region. To oversee the expansion process, Starbucks created zone vice presidents to direct the development of each region and to implant the Starbucks culture in the newly opened stores. All of the new zone vice presidents Starbucks recruited came with extensive operating and marketing experience in chain-store retailing.

Starbucks' store launches grew steadily more successful. In 1995, new stores generated an average of $700,000 in revenue in their first year, far more than the average of $427,000 in 1990. This was partly due to the growing reputation of the Starbucks brand. In more and more instances, Starbucks' reputation reached new markets even before stores opened. Moreover, existing stores continued to post year-to-year gains in sales

Starbucks had notable success in identifying top retailing sites for its stores. The company had the best real estate team in the coffee-bar industry and a sophisticated system that enabled it to identify not only the most attractive individual city blocks but also the exact store location that was best. The company's site location track record was so good that as of 1997 it had closed only 2 of the 1,500 sites it had opened.

Product Line

Starbucks stores offered a choice of regular or decaffeinated coffee beverages, a special "coffee of the day," and a broad selection of Italian-style espresso drinks. In addition, customers could choose from a wide selection of fresh-roasted whole-bean coffees (which could be ground on the premises and carried home in distinctive packages), a selection of fresh pastries and other food items, sodas, juices, teas, and coffee-related hardware and equipment. In 1997, the company introduced its Starbucks Barista home espresso machine featuring a new portafilter system that accommodated both ground coffee and Starbucks' new ready-to-use espresso pods. Power Frappuccino—a version of the company's popular Frappuccino blended beverage, packed with protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins—was tested in several markets during 1997; another promising new product being tested for possible rollout in 1998 was Chai Tea Lattè, a combination of black tea, exotic spices, honey, and milk.

The company's retail sales mix was roughly 61 percent coffee beverages, 15 percent whole-bean coffees, 16 percent food items, and 8 percent coffee-related products and equipment. The product mix in each store varied, depending on the size and location of each outlet. Larger stores carried a greater variety of whole coffee beans, gourmet food items, teas, coffee mugs, coffee grinders, coffee-making equipment, filters, storage containers, and other accessories. Smaller stores and kiosks typically sold a full line of coffee beverages, a limited selection of whole-bean coffees, and a few hardware items.

In recent years, the company began selling special jazz and blues CDs, which in some cases were special compilations that had been put together for Starbucks to use as store background music. The idea for selling the CDs originated with a Starbucks store manager who had worked in the music industry and selected the new "tape of the month" Starbucks played as background in its stores. He had gotten compliments from customers wanting to buy the music they heard and suggested to senior executives that there was a market for the company's music tapes. Research that involved looking through two years of comment cards turned up hundreds asking Starbucks to sell the music it played in its stores. The Starbucks CDs, created from the Capitol Records library, proved a significant addition to the company's product line. Some of the CDs were specifically collections designed to tie in with new blends of coffee that the company was promoting. Starbucks also sold Oprah's Book Club selections, the profits of which were donated to a literacy fund supported by the Starbucks Foundation.

The company was constantly engaged in efforts to develop new ideas, new products, and new experiences for customers that belonged exclusively to Starbucks. Schultz and other senior executives drummed in the importance of always being open to re-inventing the Starbucks experience.

International Expansion

In markets outside the continental United States (including Hawaii), Starbucks' strategy was to license a reputable and capable local company with retailing know-how in the target host country to develop and operate new Starbucks stores. In some cases, Starbucks was a joint venture partner in the stores outside the continental Untied States. Starbucks created a new subsidiary, Starbucks Coffee International (SCI), to orchestrate overseas expansion and begin to build the Starbucks brand name globally via licensees; Howard Behar was president of SCI.

Going into 1998, SCI had 12 retail stores in Tokyo, 7 in Hawaii, 6 in Singapore, and 1 in the Philippines. Agreements had been signed with licensees to begin opening stores in Taiwan and Korea in 1998. The company and its licensees had plans to open as many as 40 stores in the Pacific Rim by the end of September 1998. The licensee in Taiwan foresaw a potential of 200 stores in that country alone. The potential of locating stores in Europe and Latin America was being explored.

Corporate Responsibility and Ethical Issues

Howard Schultz's effort to "build a company with soul" included a broad-based program of corporate responsibility, orchestrated mainly through the Starbucks Foundation, set up in 1997. Starbucks was the largest corporate contributor in North America to CARE, a worldwide relief and development organization that sponsored health, education, and humanitarian aid programs in most of the Third World countries where Starbucks purchased its coffee supplies; Starbucks began making annual corporate contributions to CARE when it became profitable in 1991. In addition, CARE samplers of coffee and CARE-related mugs, backpacks, and T-shirts were offered in the company's mail-order catalog; a portion of the price on all sales was donated to CARE. In 1995 Starbucks began a program to improve the conditions of workers in coffee-growing countries, establishing a code of conduct for its growers and providing financial assistance for agricultural improvement projects. In 1997, Starbucks formed an alliance with Appropriate Technology International to help poor, small-scale coffee growers in Guatemala increase their income by improving the quality of their crops and their market access; the company's first-year grant of $75,000 went to fund a new processing facility and set up a loan program for a producer cooperative. Starbucks stores also featured CARE in promotions and had organized concerts with Kenny G and Mary Chapin Carpenter to benefit CARE.

Starbucks had an Environmental Committee that looked for ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste, as well as contribute to local community environmental efforts. There was also a Green Team, consisting of store managers from all regions. The company had donated almost $200,000 to literacy improvement efforts, using the profits from store sales of Oprah's Book Club selections. Starbucks stores participated regularly in local charitable projects of one kind or another, donating drinks, books, and proceeds from store-opening benefits. The company's annual report listed nearly 100 community organizations which Starbucks and its employees had supported in 1997 alone. Employees were encouraged to recommend and apply for grants from the Starbucks Foundation to benefit local community literacy organizations.

On the Fourth of July weekend in 1997, three Starbucks employees were murdered in the company's store in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. Starbucks offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the murderer(s) and announced it would reopen the store in early 1998 and donate all future net proceeds of that store to a Starbucks Memorial Fund that would make annual grants to local groups working to reduce violence and aid the victims of violent crimes.

In The Philippines:

Dec. 3, 1997--The people of the Philippines able to enjoy the Starbucks Experience when that country's first Starbucks Coffee retail location opens in Makati, Manila's leading financial district, on December 4.

The Starbucks retail location, which will be operated by Manila-based Rustan Coffee Corporation, will offer a selection of more than 30 varietals and blends of the finest arabica coffee beans in addition to internationally acclaimed coffee beverages, fresh pastries and desserts, and a large selection of coffee brewing equipment and accessories.

 

Starbucks Coffee Branches in the Philippines

STARBUCKS COFFEE - HEAD OFFICE

(RUSTAN COFFEE CORPORATION)

3/F Urban Building Senator Gil Puyat Avenue Makati Metro Manila Philippines

Phone: +63(2)8962755

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