KFC began investigation after a BBC undercover inspection revealed that one of the fast food chain's UK branches has feces bacteria on ice.
The restaurant said it was highly disappointed and had launched a probe.
The news came after BBC's Rip Off Britain program looked into the food hygiene of different branches of numerous popular takeaway restaurants and coffee joints.
One of the experts who studied the data from the investigations said the bacteria found on the KFC ice may cause illness to anyone who consumes it.
KFC Branch Closed
As per the BBC program, the KFC branch where the feces bacteria were detected had closed its doors temporarily. This is to conduct a thorough clean-up after it rated zero in a hygiene scale weeks prior to the collections of the sample.
KFC is now performing a retraining project with all members of the team about the protocols for touch point cleaning and strategies.
The company stresses that it takes hygiene and food safety very seriously.
Findings Of The BBC Investigation
"We found high levels of bacteria in the ice," says Dr. Margarita Gomez Escalada, who examined the results. She adds that the positive fecal coliform test signifies that bacteria from feces may be present either in the ice or from the water, which was used to make the ice.
Escalada examined the sample at the Leeds Beckett University.
How Did The Experts Investigate?
Covert scientists went to different restaurants to see the overall hygiene being practiced in the dining joints.
Among the restaurants they visited include Costa in Loughborough, Chicken Cottage in Hampstead, Café Nero in Bath, Wimpy in Basildon and KFC at Martineau Place, Birmingham.
The scientists asked for a cup of tap water with ice as this can well indicate the hygienic protocols behind the counter.
Majority of the samples had very low or non-hazardous amounts of bacteria during the testing.
KFC sure has lots of followers all around the world, including a 21-year-old UK woman who ate at the restaurant every single day for three years. Rapid investigations about the matter is therefore crucial to the restaurant's reputation.
