KFC sues three Chinese firms over claims of eight-legged chickens

Fast food giant KFC’s unit in China has filed a lawsuit against three Chinese firms for using the social media platform to spread rumours about its food.

Some of the rumours by these firms include the claim that KFC, owned by Yum Brands, modifies its birds to have six wings and eight legs, along with digitally alerted photos of deformed chickens and rumours of maggots in a KFC delivery order.

KFC, that has filed a case in a court in Shanghai, said that the posts appeared on the WeChat app through ten accounts that were handled by Yingchenanzhi Success and Culture Communication, Shanxi Weilukuang Technology and Taiyuan Zero Point Technology.

Apart from a compensation of CNY1.5m ($242,000), the fast food chain has also asked for an apology.

Claiming that the messages had been around for a while, KFC said that there had been around 4,000 defamatory messages that had been read more than 100,000 times by the end of April.

KFC China’s president Qu Cuirong said in a statement: "This not only seriously misled consumers, but also hurt our brand."

The legal action comes after KFC China suffered from two food scares within two years. It is being speculated that this is an effort by the company to win back its customers in the country where Yum’s has the highest revenue and profit.

Recently, Yum said that its profit and revenue had gone down in in the fiscal first quarter that ended on 21 March.

China has been rocked by various food scandals in the past, with consumers becoming very cautious about what they eat.

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Image: A KFC outlet in China. Photo: courtesy of ???.