KFC China's high-speed expansion brings worries

NBA player Yi Jianlian found what seems to have been a body hair in his KFC hamburger yesterday morning.

A suspiciously body hair was found in Yi Jianlian's half-eaten KFC hamburger. [File photo]

"When I found this in my breakfast, it turned my stomach," read the caption on Yi's Sina Weibo photo yesterday morning.

Within a few hours, the post had gone viral, with more than 5,000 comments and forwards. Many users expressed sympathy for Yi.

"Just imagine he discovered it after half of it was eaten. What a poor guy!," wrote one user.

Many other Sina Weibo users shared their own similar experiences. "I had discovered exactly the same thing in KFC Finger Licking Chicken," wrote another user. Others foreswore eating KFC altogether..

KFC responded to Yi's complaint on its official Weibo four hours later, claiming that the offensive "hair" was actually a thread from workers' protective gloves.

Most Weibo users seemed skeptical, however. Yi has yet to respond to KFC's apology.

As of December 2012, KFC had more than 4,200 restaurants in more than 800 Chinese cities, according to the restaurant's website. But, after two decades of rapid expansion, the chain is now experiencing something of a public relations crisis.

Reports surfaced last year that the Suhai Group, a KFC supplier based in the Shanxi Province, added toxic chemicals to its feed in order to grow chickens more rapidly. In Shanghai, food regulators found excessive levels of antibiotics in eight batches of chicken supplied to KFC by the Liuhe Group. And in 2011, it was reported that KFC often uses the same cooking oil for upwards of four days, raising concerns about food safety and quality at the restaurant.

"It's obvious that the Suhai chicken event was due to KFC's internal management problems," said chain management expert Li Weihua . "Though the public will forget the whole thing as time passes by, it casts doubt on KFC's food safety."