KFC to pay out £19,000 over hygiene breaches

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has been ordered to pay £19,000 after flies, a cockroach and a mouse were found in one of its West End branches.

Health inspectors reportedly found a cockroach eating a chip near takeaway boxes and tongs in the Leicester Square branch, as well as seeing a mouse, flies and dried chicken blood on the floor.

The firm admitted breaching five hygiene rules in August 2008. These were:
* Failure to keep the premises clean;
* Failure to keep the food premises maintained in good repair and condition;
* Failure to put in place adequate procedures to ensure that pests were controlled;
* Failure to ensure that materials for cleaning hands and for hygienic drying were available at hand basins;
* Failure to ensure the layout, design and construction permitted good food hygiene practices, including protection against contamination and pest control.

Richard Block, Head of Food, Health and Safety at Westminster City Council, said:

“The standards of hygiene at this restaurant were appalling and simply unacceptable. A fast food chain of the size and stature of KFC should know better, and I am amazed their head office allowed such an important flagship restaurant to decline to these low levels.”

A KFC spokesperson said:

“The restaurant has undergone a complete renovation, and the environmental health officer’s barrister has told the District Judge that there is no longer a concern about these premises.”

The fast food chain was fined £11,000 for the five offences and ordered to pay £7,927.80 in costs and a victim surcharge of £15.