Employee asked manager about relabeling stale salad: All Danish KFC restaurants get smiley with a sour or straight mouth

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has, among other things, checked hygiene at the 11 Danish Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.

All 11 Danish Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants were visited by the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration’s travel team on an inspection visit in early June. This has resulted in 11 sour smileys or smileys with a straight mouth to the restaurants from the American fast food chain, writes DR.

In total, the board has awarded four angry smileys and seven with a straight face. This means that none of the restaurants received a happy smiley during the visit on June 2.

Since 2001, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has equipped cafes, shops and restaurants with a smiley face with the aim of making it easier for consumers to see how well hygiene, among other things, is managed. The agency carries out approximately 60,000 inspections each year, which trigger a smiley face. The face is a smiley face with a happy, straight or angry mouth. A straight mouth means that there were some less serious violations. And an angry face means that there were serious or repeated violations.

Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC, has restaurants in Rødovre, Greve, Tilst, Horsens, Vejle, Herning, two in Odense and three in Copenhagen. During a follow-up visit on June 3, KFC at Field’s in Copenhagen managed to turn the smiley face from straight to happy, which means no complaints.

Revealing messages

The report from KFC in Odense states, among other things, that mold-like growth, dust accumulation and cobwebs are seen.

“Refrigerator for storing chicken appears unclean with marinade or product residue on surfaces and storage trays,” it also says.

The company itself notes that it is “not okay” and that cleaning needs to be improved in the future.

At the restaurant on Amager, the Food Travel Team has measured the temperature of chicken in bags next to the company’s washing-up area. There are three half-filled bags of chicken breast, hot wings and chicken drumsticks, the report says. Temperatures were measured at 13.1 degrees, 13.7 degrees and 14.9 degrees, respectively. The temperature in the room was measured at 24.2 degrees, it is noted in the inspection report. The restaurant responds to the agency by saying that the meat will be discarded immediately.

The inspection report also refers to message threads between employees and managers at KFC. Images in the message threads show, among other things, that chicken meat is being thawed outside the refrigerator in boxes on the company floor, even though the company’s official guidelines state that it must not be thawed in any other way than in the refrigerator.

“In addition, an employee sends two pictures of expired lettuce in a message and directly asks management whether it should be thrown out or relabeled, to which management responds that they will wait until the next day to throw it out,” the agency notes.

ritzau