Closure notice issued to KFC restaurant

Food safety officials issued closure notice to the outlet of the multinational Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) at Pulimood in the city on Monday evening following a complaint about live worms inside the chicken served to a family.

Food safety officials said they had received a call on the toll-free line set up for the public to file complaints.

Family’s complaint

“A family which had come to eat at the KFC outlet had called saying that there were live worms in the fried chicken they had been served. They said that they had torn a piece of chicken apart to feed their toddler when they spotted scores of wriggly worms inside the meat. We were sceptical at first about finding live worms inside chicken which had been fried. But it turned out to be true,” a senior food safety official said.

A squad of officials, led by District Designated Food Safety Officer D. Sivakumar, reached the outlet and collected the samples of the incriminating food.

Scuffle

There was a scuffle at the outlet as the media were prevented from going inside the restaurant.

Storage suspect

Officials said the frozen chicken was brought in bulk from Coimbatore by the food chain, but obviously the cold-chain maintenance must have been poor, leading to the spoilage of the meat and worms starting to fester inside.

They said the method of frying adopted – quick frying in extremely hot oil – did not kill the worms as the heat had not penetrated inside.