KFC sorry for Braamfontein chicken wash

Hlabangani Mtshali

KFC have apologised to the public after the emergence of a video and pictures of staff members at an outlet in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, washing pieces of chicken on a concrete floor.

The staff at the branch will go for retraining and a new policy for quality control at the branch will be introduced, KFC said in a statement yesterday.

On Sunday, the chicken franchise printed full-page apologies in at least two Sunday newspapers, expressing their regret over the incident.

“We want to say sorry, from the bottom of our hearts, for what happened at our restaurant in Braamfontein,” the advertisement, issued by managing director Doug Smart, said.

This came after a Facebook user last week posted images of staff at the branch taking chicken out of containers, placing it on a concrete floor and hosing it down with a fire hose.

At the time, Smart said it was an isolated incident involving only that branch and a number of facts needed to be clarified.

He said one of KFC’s quality checks was to ensure the chicken considered unsuitable was set aside and not served to the customers.

The process required the team to count the stock prior to processing it for disposal.

Amid the controversy, the branch closed its doors on Friday while investigations into the incident continued.

In Sunday’s advert, Smart said the Braamfontein staff breaded the chicken before realising it had to be thrown away.

Some of the staff seemed to panic when they realised the already coated chicken will be thrown away.

They then decided to wash the bread off the chicken.

“However, washing chicken on the floor – even chicken we were going to throw away – is totally unacceptable and goes against our strict process,” Smart said.

“We want you to know we take this very seriously and have taken action to make sure this never happens again.” – Caxton News Service

We want to say sorry, from the bottom of our hearts, for what happened at our restaurant in Braamfontein Doug Smart KFC managing director in a full-page advertisement