KFC Letter to Daily Voice
Letter to the Editor, Daily Voice
Dear Sir,
Your readers deserve better than the inaccurate and defamatory article on KFC that you published on 8 December 2008.
That was not journalism; it was a deliberately biased assault on KFC in which your readers were denied the facts because the criticisms were not put to KFC or our supplier, Rainbow Chickens.
Your readers are entitled to know that KFC SA is committed to the highest poultry welfare standards and our South African supplier meets all relevant national animal welfare legislation and industry standards. Our supplier is regularly audited in an independent audit which goes well beyond local legislative requirements and would preclude any treatment such as the allegations made in your article.
The poultry welfare requirements we have set are based on UK standards, chosen because we felt these were the strictest at the time of developing the programme locally.
Food safety systems at poultry suppliers are monitored to ensure compliance to all legal requirements and international standards. These, too, are independently audited according to stringent global standards which are reviewed on a regular basis and are driven by ever-changing technology, legislation, best practices and customer requirements.
The Farms, Feed and Fertilizers Act (Act 36 of 47) as well as Medicines Control Act (101 of 1965) governs poultry suppliers with regards to chicken feed formulations. All feeds are formulated by qualified nutritionists and are verified by responsible nutritionists and veterinarians. Only wholesome natural products are fed to the chickens.
Illegal substances are not allowed in feed formulations. No hormones or steroids are registered for use in South Africa and it is illegal to use them in poultry production.
Feed is available to all chickens by means of pan feeders within a maximum radius of 4 meters placed at the correct height according to age of chickens. Force feeding is not practised at our supplier, beaks are not clipped and feathers are not removed from live birds.
Chickens are housed according to the weight and age of chicken to ensure acceptable floor space availability. Chicken houses are equipped with sophisticated ventilation systems to ensure the proper maintenance of high and low temperatures as well as fresh air flow to eliminate the accumulation of ammonia gasses inside houses. These parameters are monitored 3 times a day.
Chicken weights are strictly controlled according to growth profiles to ensure that overweight birds are not produced.
Your readers should also be informed that MSG is an approved food ingredient used widely in the local and international food industry. MSG application in KFC products complies with local legislation and regulations.
The author of the article, Justin Nurse, was clearly intent on reproducing inaccurate information about KFC that has been circulated for years on the internet in a piece deliberately intended to damage KFC.
He did not approach KFC as a journalist, but as a customer asking a few seemingly innocent questions. He did not ask for KFC’s response to the internet allegations. Neither he nor the Daily Voice presented KFC with the formulated allegations to give KFC an opportunity to comment on them before publication.
All of this information could have been obtained, and should have been taken into account or published, according to the requirements of South African Press Code which you have flagrantly contravened in a malicious article under a damaging headline.
This appallingly one-sided and factually inaccurate article misleads your readers and makes a mockery of your claim to be “fighting for consumer rights”.
Yours sincerely,
Sthembile Shabangu
Corporate Affairs- KFC Southern Africa
