COIMBATORE: The Food Safety Wing here is to register a case against a KFC outlet located in RS Puram, where a bucket of chicken bought by a customer, was found to contain “dead worms” almost exactly a year ago.
In June of 2014, Yasser Arafat, a businessman, had bought a bucket of crispy chicken and had picked up soft drinks from the outlet. He, along with his friends, then headed home, where they noticed that the chicken contained worms and handed over the food to the Food Safety Wing. They then called the outlet and informed them of the foreign substances in the food. They had claimed that the store had refused to address the issue.
On Tuesday, R Kathiravan, the Designated Officer of the Food Safety Wing, Coimbatore, told Express that they were going to file a case under section 59(i) (Punishment for unsafe food -- where such failure or contravention does not result in injury, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months and also with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees) of the FSS Act of 2006. Sources said that samples had tested positive for “dead worms”.
When Express contacted Kentucky Fried Chicken’s head office, the company had asked us to send our queries by email to a designated contact person. A statement on behalf of KFC to Express, from Mukesh Kharbanda, from Fuzion Public Relations Pvt. Ltd, read, “This is a case of misconception. We cook all our products at a minimum of 170 degree celsius. This ensures 100 pc safety at all times. The product was taken from our restaurant as a takeaway. A product sample was given to the authorities after 3 days. This creates a doubt and we have therefore contested this report.
