Finger lickin' good… or straight-up clucking hell? KFC might fry a mean chicken,
but there's a lot not to love about Colonel Sanders' fast food empire.
In order to serve millions of meals each year, KFC must produce and process millions of chickens.
What does this mean for the animals? Well, by and large, it means crowded conditions
that aren't always healthy or humane. The company has acknowledged that inflammation of the foot is
common in many of their UK-farmed chickens, for example. Some of this stems from the size of the
chickens; a "normal" KFC chicken is super-bred to reach its capacity weight in only 30 days,
which taxes its body and makes it difficult for the animal to move. Ammonia from waste
products can also burn these chickens, which then leads to the need for antibiotics.
Petitioners from 10 countries spoke out against the treatment of these chickens in 2018,
which has led to KFC becoming more transparent about how their animals are treated. Since then,
KFC has committed to pursuing more humane chicken farming methods in Europe, as part of a larger
effort among providers to prevent cruelty in the food industry. In 2020, KFC announced the company
would be implementing a new set of worldwide guidelines for chicken farming practices.
Of course, even if their chickens were housed and cared for under the best of conditions,
the quantity of chickens destroyed to provide global fast food meals is staggering. In 2004,
PETA estimated that over 750 million chickens were killed a year in order to provide meat for
KFC's restaurants. In 2003, the Los Angeles Times had reported that 350 million chickens
were slaughtered a year in the U.S. alone. Doing some quick calculations, that equates to 39,954
chickens killed every hour, or 665 chickens killed every minute — and that's just for KFC.
In the past, when cramped conditions caused animal illness on their chicken farms, KFC has
used antibiotics as the solution. They would even inject antibiotics through eggshells and
into the eggs of chicks that had yet to hatch. But there are dangers involved with introducing these
medications into the food chain — for example, the germs they're meant to kill eventually developed
antibiotic resistance. This means that antibiotics have become less effective when used on humans.
According to a study published in Frontiers in Microbiology, many antibiotics have become more
or less useless against the bacterial infections they were meant to treat.
This development has reverberated through the medical world and prompted food providers to
take action. Though KFC used human antibiotics on their chickens on a regular basis, in 2017, the
company pledged to change their practices in order to eliminate the need for antibiotics among their
chicken populations. In 2019, the NRDC reported that KFC had successfully achieved that goal.
According to British tabloid The Sun, a U.K. customer once opened her box of KFC hot wings
to find an intact chicken head — complete with beak and eyes — lying breaded and
fried among the other pieces. Obviously, the word "gross" doesn't even cover it.
The customer posted a photo of the offending head along with her frankly
generous two-star JustEat review of the restaurant. She included the comment:
"Put me off the rest of my meal, urgh."
One Instagram commenter responded, quite fairly:
"What does it take to get one star?"
In the aftermath, KFC reached out to the customer to apologize for
their experience and offer her free KFC as a token of their remorse.
Although, after that ordeal, you'd probably be forgiven for politely declining.
Stories of horrifying meats being used in fast food restaurants have been around about as long
as fast food itself. But one particular KFC patron claimed to have identified the source
of his meal... and based on what he saw in the wrapper, it certainly didn't appear to be chicken.
A Los Angeles-based customer posted to his Facebook page that,
after biting into what he thought was a three-piece chicken meal,
he looked down to discover he'd been served what looked a heck of a lot like a cooked rat.
Understandably, the rodent-like shape of the product sure raised some eyebrows,
prompting an investigation by the company. In a statement provided to ABC News, KFC confirmed
that the DNA test indicated the meat in question was chicken after all. So yes, it was nothing more
than a super gross fast food myth. It just goes to show that, if you eat with your eyes first,
you may not be getting the whole story. Still, it doesn't hurt to look before you bite.
"Colonel Sanders fixes Sunday dinners seven days a week — and it's finger lickin' good."
KFC's "finger lickin' good" slogan may have sounded like a great idea in 1956,
when the phrase was coined by one of the company's restaurant managers.
And yes, it has since become a recognizable part of the KFC brand.
But a global pandemic can change the world's perspective on a lot of popular things,
and in 2020, KFC was called out for using its iconic tagline in a new ad that had just
launched in the U.K., accompanied by visuals of people repeatedly licking their fingers.
Of course, KFC had no way of predicting a global pandemic when they created the ad,
but the company certainly wasn't oblivious to the controversy caused by their marketing mistake.
They dropped both the phrase and the campaign in order to discourage poor hygiene practices.
After all, when the world is being told to wash their hands better and longer, the last thing a
company wants to do is encourage people to put their fingers in their mouths. Still,
the new normal didn't last long: KFC brought their slogan back in a new campaign just a year later.
For better or worse, social media has given us all a better look into the world of fast
food. In 2020, for example, a TikTok user posted a video of what appeared to be KFC's in-restaurant
process for creating gravy. The clip shows bits of overcooked chicken from the bottom of the fryer
being transformed into the muddy brown liquid that is poured over the chain's mashed potatoes.
Many viewers took no offense to the process; as one commenter put it:
"People getting funny about gravy being made from chicken
fat. HOW DID YOU ACTUALLY THINK GRAVY WAS MADE?"
However, others said they felt ill after watching the video,
vowing never to eat KFC's gravy again. Not surprisingly, copycat recipes for homemade KFC
gravy make no mention of using fryer trash as an ingredient. While creating new food
from kitchen waste may seem like a great way to minimize unnecessary throw-aways,
recycling fried chicken sludge into savory dinner sauce is probably best avoided.
One thing you should never find in a kitchen of any kind is fecal material.
When this gross phenomenon occurs, questions invariably arise about how this substance could
have possibly made its way into the food prep area. That's exactly what happened when fecal
contaminants were found in the ice machines at several U.K.-based KFC locations. Samples were
taken for inspection from a list of restaurants that included KFCs from across the region,
returning results that showed significant levels of fecal coliform bacteria in the ice itself.
"No God please no! No! No! Nooooo!"
Considering the government standard for such contaminants is a hard zero,
the results were not just disgusting; they also posed a serious health risk to customers.
To address the issue, the ice machines in all U.K. locations were immediately inspected and cleaned,
and KFC reinforced its in-restaurant hygiene standards.
Not everyone adheres to the same standards of cleanliness when it
comes to KFC's numerous kitchens… or so a viral video can make it seem.
Employees at one location in South Africa were filmed washing a batch of chicken on
the floor of a storeroom using a garden hose. An investigation followed and determined that
the chicken was intended to be discarded prior to being prepped in the kitchen, and that the items
in question had already been breaded with KFC's secret seasoning. The company said a statement:
"We have strict processes in place, even when it comes to food disposal
and will not tolerate our stores not following them. We have already dealt
very firmly with the owner and responsible people involved."
After the clip went viral, the restaurant's managers explained their mistake in an apology
written in The Sunday World, adding that the food was indeed headed for the bin, rather than
the buckets. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a video is worth at least a full-blown
explanation, an apology, and a vow to make sure the same move doesn't happen in the future.
KFC may take food safety seriously, but some markets have clearly tested the limits — and
risked making customers incredibly ill at the same time. In 2014, the chain found themselves
in a pickle when a report revealed that repackaged chicken with "new" expiration dates on the label
had been sold to several fast food restaurants in China. This, of course, included KFC.
The scandal followed a 2013 report regarding excessive use of antibiotics in chickens
destined for KFC kitchens, which had prompted KFC to cut ties with several distributors. This
double whammy led to a massive 13% drop in KFC year-over-year same-store sales in the region.
Turns out, when people learn about repulsive practices within the restaurant industry,
they're less eager to keep eating at the offending restaurants.
Still, everyone loves a comeback story, and KFC's sales eventually rebounded.
Some of the grosser incidents in KFC's past have led to more than mere bad reviews and
viral videos; in some cases, they can destroy entire lives. In 2005, seven-year-old Monika
Samaan ate a Twister wrap suspected to be tainted with salmonella at a KFC near Sydney, Australia.
She, her parents, and her brother were all hospitalized following the meal.
While her family recovered, Samaan's resulting infection left her with brain damage and rendered
her wheelchair-bound. In April 2012, KFC was ordered to pay the family $8 million
Australian dollars, or $8.3 million U.S. dollars, in damages and court costs. Though KFC executives
admitted the tragedy of the situation, they were also surprised by the ruling and appealed.
This appeal was eventually dismissed, however, and the company was forced to pay the amount.