The ghost of the past came to haunt Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC when officials from the Food Safety Department in Kerala raided a Thiruvananthapuram outlet on Tuesday following complaints of worms in the chicken served.
KFC's tryst with India began in 1995, when it first set-up base in the country, opening an outlet in Bangalore. But food safety inspectors soon raided the outlet finding chicken served containing 2.8 per cent monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is said to cause nausea and headaches, retardation and birth defects. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act sets the ceiling for MSG at one percent.
With KFC exceeding MSG limits, its license was revoked and the outlet had to be closed in Bangalore. The situation was no different in Delhi, when a fly was detected in its kitchen and the food safety department under the Madan Lal Khurana-led BJP government in the capital had ordered its closure.
Eventually KFC exited the country following protests by health and animal rights activists, returning only a few years ago to set up base in India. The food joint, which is now part of Yum! Restaurants, an American company that operates quick-service restaurants (QSR) such as Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, has 183 outlets in over 35 cities. It is the leading player in the QSR space that specialises in chicken in India.
While the Kerala government is in the process of raiding KFC outlets across the state as part of its drive to crackdown on unhgyienic joints, a spokesperson for the company says that it is committed to following international standards. "All KFC chicken is sourced from the state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities which comply with the most stringent food safety standards. These facilities are certified to international quality standards and are audited frequently. Our chicken is freshly prepared several times a day in the most hygienic conditions in ovens at 250 degrees or fryers at 170 degrees," the spokesperson says.
But food experts say that the issue of worms in chicken is likely to hit the brand hard as consumers are likely to be cautious now when they walk into a KFC outlet. The company declined to indicate how they proposed to deal with the negative publicity following the worm-in-chicken controversy.
In the past, companies such as Cadbury launched an extended campaign with brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan to explain how they had tightened procedures to root out issues of contamination following detection of worms in their chocolates.
Companies such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, meanwhile, lobbied hard to correct perceptions following the pesticide-in-cola controversy a few years ago.
