“OUR food is perfectly safe to eat.” From the company that once boasted that its fried chicken was “finger-lickin’ good”, this is hardly a bold sales pitch. But Yum! Brands, the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, has good cause to sound defensive. A food-safety scandal in China, its most important market, refuses to blow over.

An exposé in December on CCTV, China’s national broadcaster, claimed that local suppliers to KFC had stuffed its chickens with excessive antibiotics. That prompted an official investigation, and outrage on Chinese social media. During an earnings call on February 5th to discuss its fourth-quarter results, Yum! executives stressed the positive: worldwide sales grew by 5% in 2012, and the firm opened 1,976 new restaurants. The Chinese regulator has decided not to take further action against Yum!, though its suppliers are still under the microscope.