US based meat supplier OSI Group has lost around six billion yuan ($967.6 million) since a food safety scandal in China last summer, a senior China-based executive for the firm told the official Xinhua news agency.

The report, published late on Tuesday, underlines how severe the impact of food safety scares can be in China, which has seen a series of stomach churning scandals from decades old meat to milk tainted with industrial chemical melamine which led to the deaths of at least six infants.
OSI Group said in January it had lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” in lost revenue in China since an undercover local media report alleged to show workers at its Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd plant using out-of-date meat and doctoring production dates.

Operations at Shanghai Husi, which supplied meat to McDonald’s Corp and Yum Brands Inc, were suspended following the reports. Local authorities launched an investigation into the matter and OSI’s chief executive said he was appalled over misteps at the plant.
OSI China’s vice president Lu Yong told Xinhua on Tuesday the firm had suffered the near $1 billion loss since the scandal last July and that many factories were still suspended