The Hindu reports food safety officials issued a closure notice to a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) at Pulimood, India, following a complaint about live worms inside the chicken served to a family via a toll-free line.

“A family which had come to eat at the KFC outlet had called saying that there were live worms in the fried chicken they had been served. They said that they had torn a piece of chicken apart to feed their toddler when they spotted scores of wriggly worms inside the meat. We were sceptical at first about finding live worms inside chicken which had been fried. But it turned out to be true,” a senior food safety official said.

A squad of officials, led by District Designated Food Safety Officer D. Sivakumar, reached the outlet and collected the samples of the incriminating food.

Officials said the frozen chicken was brought in bulk from Coimbatore by the food chain, but obviously the cold-chain maintenance must have been poor, leading to the spoilage of the meat and worms starting to fester inside.

They said the method of frying adopted – quick frying in extremely hot oil – did not kill the worms as the heat had not penetrated inside.