The scandal has dragged in more companies; including U.S. coffee chain Starbucks, Burger King and others.

McDonald's has apologized for the inconvenience caused by this scandal, as switching suppliers has interfered¹ with the availability of some items on the menu.

The US fast-food icon² and Yum Brands, owner of KFC, dropped Shanghai Husi Foods after the supplier was discovered to be re-processing and re-selling expired meat products to those fast food chains and other famous brands.

Starbucks said some of its stores previously³ sold products containing chicken originally sourced from Shanghai Husi.

Fast-food chain Burger King and Dicos, China's third-ranked diner, have said they are removing Shanghai Husi food products from their outlets⁴. Dicos said it pulled all ham products supplied by Shanghai Husi and will stop serving its ham sandwich product for breakfast.

Pizza chain Papa John's said on its Weibo blog that it has removed all meat products supplied by Shanghai Husi and has cut ties with the supplier. Burger King issued a similar statement on the social media site, adding it has also launched an investigation⁵.

IKEA said on Weibo that Shanghai Husi had previously been a supplier, but had not provided the firm with product since September last year.

Domino's Pizza and Subway, named in online reports as customers of Shanghai Husi, said their outlets in China do not use meat products from the firm.

Yoshinoya, convenience store FamilyMart, and Chinese chain Wallace urged diners not to worry, and said they did not currently use any products from Shanghai Husi.

The supplier was shut down on Sunday by local regulators after a TV report showed staff using expired meat and picking up meat from the floor to add to the mix.

The scare has stirred local consumers and become one of the most discussed topics online by the country's influential⁶ 'netizens', with some users writing and spreading long lists of firms thought to be tarnished⁷.