SHANGHAI - A local procuratorate in Shanghai Friday said it has brought criminal charges against three food company managers for producing and selling shoddy products in a dyed steam bun scandal.

The three are the general manager, sales manager and production manager of Shanghai Shenglu Food Co., which added coloring while producing corn flour buns at a company subsidiary in Baoshan District, the district people's procuratorate said in a statement.

The company sold over 270,000 packets of dyed buns worth 620,000 yuan ($97,000) between October 2010 and April 2011, it alleged.

The company also re-labelled buns made days earlier with new production dates and added expired or near-expired buns returned by retailers to the product mixes to create "new" buns.

A deputy director of the food production supervision agency in Baoshan District was previously removed from his post for dereliction of duty related to the scandal, which emerged through a China Central Television (CCTV) report on April 11.