Another food scare in China has caused big brand food chains to sever ties with partners and source alternative supplies, highlighting the risk of reliance on a single company.

OSI Group, the parent company of Shanghai Husi Food Co, is being investigated for allegedly selling expired meat to fast food chains.

The US-based group is one of the largest privately-held food processing companies in the world. The company reprocesses meat products and supplies them to fast food chains, such as McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC.

Many McDonald’s restaurants in China and Japan have stopped serving beef and chicken as it could have been sourced from Shanghai Husi.

OSI said it was suspending operations at the Shanghai base and would withdraw all products manufactured by its embattled unit from the marketplace. It also said it would undertake a review of all its China plants in a bid to limit further damage.

This could create an opportunity for Irish beef. McDonald’s is the single largest purchaser of Irish beef by volume, purchasing approximately 40,000 tonnes of Irish beef annually. Two years ago, it signed a five year €300 million deal with Dawn Meats to process up to 18,000 tonnes of Irish beef annually.