McDonald's faces more overseas troubles

McDonald’s Corp. faces another international battle.

Russia’s consumer protection agency wants to ban some of the Oak Brook hamburger giant’s sandwiches, its milkshakes and ice cream because of “inappropriate physical-chemical parameters,” Reuters reported.

McDonald’s said it hadn’t received a complaint from the agency. The Big Mac appeared safe, but the agency’s hit list included the Royal Cheeseburger, Filet-o-Fish, Cheeseburger and Chicken Burger.

Earlier this week, Aurora-based OSI Group apologized for actions at its Shanghai plant that led to expired beef and chicken being delivered to McDonald’s and several other fast-food chains in China.

McDonald’s has about 400 restaurants in Russia. The company upset some Russian leaders when it closed its three restaurants in Crimea, citing the “evolving situation” after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine. The company said the closures were “strictly a business decision which has nothing to do with politics.”

The Associated Press reported the agency, Rospotrebnadzor, said during inspections of two restaurants some food was found with microbial contamination and several items had caloric values two to three times higher than allowed by national regulations.

Rospotrebnadzor has a history of actions that dovetail Russia’s political agenda. As tensions between Russia and Georgia escalated before their 2008 war, Russia banned the import of Georgian wine and mineral water — two of its major export products — for failing to meet sanitary norms. Last year, as tensions heated up over Ukraine’s desire to sign a trade pact with the European Union, Russia banned imports of chocolates made by the company of Petro Poroshenko, a tycoon who supported the EU deal and is now Ukraine’s president, the AP reported.

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