Kfc Scrubs Up After Complaints

The Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant here was closed Thursday for cleaning and employee training.

That was done at the suggestion of the Panhandle Health Department after the agency received three complaints involving eight people over the last two weeks, said Ken Babin of the Health Department.

The eight people all had eaten at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Coeur d’Alene. All complained of “flulike symptoms,” he said.

Panhandle Health was not able to find a food-borne link between the illnesses and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Such links are almost never discovered, Babin said.

But “if we get an unusual number of (separate) complaints, we take a real conservative approach, we jump in and see if anything is happening,” he said. “We recommend they close down and clean the entire place.”

Employee training also was recommended, which Kentucky Fried Chicken performed, Babin said.

In addition, Panhandle Health had an inspector look at the restaurant on Wednesday. That inspector discovered a hand-washing station without hot water and a place with potential for cross contamination between raw and prepared food.

Duane Byrd of Kentucky Fried Chicken confirmed the restaurant was following Panhandle Health’s recommendation.

“There is no connection between Kentucky Fried Chicken and any food-borne illness,” he said. “It seems to us these people have the flu.”

, DataTimes