Mongolia is conducting an enquiry and has temporarily suspended operations of all KFC restaurants in the country. This step has been taken as 42 people were hospitalised and hundreds showed food poisoning symptoms after eating at one of the outlets of KFC, a fast-food chain.
The city's Metropolitan Professional Inspection Agency said, “The incident occurred in Ulaanbaatar last week and was caused by poor internal hygiene checks. Out of which 247 people had reported food poisoning symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting.”
The agency further said, “Preliminary checks show it was caused by the restaurant's water supply where bacteria had bred.”
Interestingly, KFC, which is part of Yum Brands Inc, opened its first restaurant in Mongolia in 2013 and currently has 11 restaurants there, all in the capital. They are operated by its franchise partner, Mongolian conglomerate Tavan Bogd Group.
However, a spokeswoman for KFC Global told Reuters in an e-mail "We deeply regret the negative impact that many people have suffered, especially to our guests of the Zaisan restaurant, and we are working to support our team members and customers during this difficult time."
"KFC Mongolia is cooperating fully with the government's investigation and recommendations around addressing the source of the incident. The procedure includes a thorough investigation of all KFC Mongolia restaurants and specifically into determining the exact cause of the reported incident."
Tavan Bogd apologised in a separate statement, saying the incident had happened due to weak internal quality checks and that daily standards and rules were poorly implemented.
