Published on June 2, 2015 at 9:11
Shanghai: The fast food chain giant KFC is to litigate three Chinese firms.
It has been accused that the Chinese firms had used social media to spread false rumors about the company’s masterpiece food categories, including that eight-legged chickens available in various KFC food courts in the country
KFC is now seeking a compensation of 1.5m yuan ($242,000, £159,000) and an apology.
The fast food giant has added that in one of the posts they had said that the chickens used by the company were genetically modified to have six wings and eight legs.
The company has now been filed a case before a court in Shanghai.
KFC said that the rumors were appeared in posts on the WeChat app.
In a statement, the fast food giant said(in Chinese) that the rumors had been spread through at least 4,000 subsequent posts.
KFC China’s president Qu Cuirong said that the incident was not only seriously misled consumers, but also hurt their brand badly.
Those firms accused by the KFC have not yet commented anything on the court complaint.
By the end of 2014, KFC had 4828 branches in China, while they have proposals to open hundreds of new outlets every year.
The company’s owner, Yum Brands, was warned of a fall in profits for 2014 after one of the suppliers to its Chinese stores was accused of selling old meat.
KFC, along with fast food giant McDonald’s have stopped using meat from the suppliers after its operations were suspended during last July.
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