Faeces bacteria found on ice served in KFC outlet
LONDON -- KFC has launched an investigation after researchers for a BBC show were served ice contaminated with bacteria from faeces during an undercover investigation.
Reporters from BBC One’s Rip Off Britain were served the ice at the Martineau Place branch of the fast food outlet in Birmingham as part of a broader investigation into food standards across the UK.
A scientist who examined the results at Leeds Beckett University, Dr Margarita Gomez Escalada, said that the bacteria posed a risk of illness to anyone who might drink the icy water.
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Rip Off Britain set out to test food hygiene at a number of takeaway outlets and coffee shops across the country.
They visited a Costa coffee in Loughborough, a Chicken Cottage in Hampstead, North London, a Bath branch of Café Nero and a Wimpy in Basildon, as well as the Birmingham KFC.
At each, they requested a tap water with ice, which serves as a good indicator of standards in the restaurant.
While most of the samples revealed low and harmless levels of bacteria, the KFC offering contained “high levels of bacteria in the ice,” Escalada said.
“The presence of faecal coliform suggests that there's faecal contamination either on the water that made the ice, or the ice itself," she added, "and so it increases the risk of getting sick from consuming this ice."
The programme found some 20 faecal coliforms per milliliter of ice, which could increase the risk of getting sick, she added.
Programme makers said the restaurant had closed for a big clean due to a poor hygiene rating just weeks before the sample was taken, but have since taken steps to address the issue and now have a five out of five score from the Food Standards Agency.
KFC said it takes food safety “extremely seriously" and is embarking on "a retraining programme with all team members on our standards for touch point cleaning and procedures.”
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Topics BBC
Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.
