There is a lesson to be learned from McDonald's recent spate of woes. The food business is by far the biggest global industry, and when you have built a brand as large as McDonald's you cannot afford to go wrong.

You cannot blame the economy or a remote location in an overseas processing factory for your woes. The first and foremost duty of being a leading brand is to anticipate and avoid mistakes at all costs. That's what your consumers expect, and that's what they are paying for. And this isn't just fast food we're talking about.

Not surprisingly, McDonald's has reported dismal sales in the last three months, ever since a food scandal in China forced stores to close because of contaminated meat. With restaurants in the Far East hit big time and closings in Russia as well, the fact that U.S. consumers are cutting back on their cheeseburger and fries intake is additional bad news.

August figures showed a 3.7 percent decline in global sales for McDonald's and a 2.8 percent decline in the U.S. This isn't the first time that the fast food giant has been in the news in the past year. Union and wage issues and an intense breakfast warfare with Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell has taken a toll on their 10-year leadership market share.

With more health-conscious millennial parents, Chick-fil-A's fresher food campaign drew away a portion of the crowd, but now the food safety scandal in China seems to be hammering another nail in the McDonald's coffin. The food giant reported lower third-quarter profits by 15 to 20 cents per share, which has of course added to the company's woes and further shaken shareholder confidence.

But it's not just McDonald's that has suffered from the China food scandal. KFC, Starbucks, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell were among the other brands that took a direct hit from the Chinese food contamination.

The scandal broke out when reports of expired products being sold to numerous fast food restaurants by a Chinese meat supplier Shanghai Husi was shown in a Chinese television channel. Following this exposure, unscheduled inspections were held in Russia that resulted in some of McDonald's Russian restaurants being abruptly shut down. Many think this was in retaliation to U.S sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and McDonald’s is a convenient scapegoat, but it has added to their loss nonetheless.

What further affected the U.S. consumer mindset is that Shanghai Husi is a Chinese subsidiary of Illinois-based OSI Group. OSI is McDonald's largest meat supplier, which is not a heartening tidbit for McDonald’s consumers to hear.

Even if nothing ever goes wrong with their supplies here in the U.S., consumers will be wary and forever careful while deciding on which burger brand to trust. To say that these reports have shaken consumer confidence is perhaps an understatement. The negative impact has been swift and felt in the falling revenues of these brands since July and is projected to go into even more of a steep decline.

There is little recourse for these restaurant brands but to take legal action against the wrongdoers and focus on their brands. It's not going an easy fix, and no amount of branding can take away the fear from consumer minds, especially with the strong social network world we live in. You can't get away with anything and since digital news is easily retrievable, the shelf life of every news item is definitely more than a day old.

In McDonald's case, it is more than a matter of improving logistics. They need to focus hard on improving their operation methods like reducing wait times, improving kitchen speed and being more innovative in their offerings, especially with healthier options.

McDonald's announcement that it will be participating in Apple Pay is already a step forward to positive speed and customer experience. Innovative preparation tables to keep condiments cool and accessible will add to this experience, and new promotional items on the menu are poised to drive back interest in their offers.

McDonald's coffee giveaway for breakfast diners was big hit earlier this year, and they have been adding healthy options like fruit and yogurt for consumers who want nutritional balance in the food, especially for their children. These efforts, along with other branding exercises in the pipeline, could mitigate some of the woes that have taken the luster away from the golden arches.

But whether McDonald's, and their rival counterparts, can really weather and sustain through this latest disaster remains to be seen.