Fast-food giant KFC has appealed against the $8 million damages payout awarded to a young girl who was left severely brain damaged from salmonella poisoning after eating a KFC chicken twister.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the company is also trying to force Monika Samaan and her family to pay its legal costs from her 2009 court hearing, which are likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Monika, then seven and now 14, became seriously ill after eating the chicken wrap at the Villawood KFC in 2005, suffering brain damage that has left her confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak.

KFC denied it was responsible, challenging the family’s claim during a four-week trial.

But the hearing exposed a series of poor hygiene practices at the Villawood store.

In April, Justice Stephen Rothman found in favour of the family, ordering KFC to pay the Samaan family $8 million in compensation, much of which will be used to pay for Monika’s lifelong medical care.

But lawyers for KFC told the NSW Supreme Court today that they have formally lodged their appeal submissions.

The court heard that the fast-food chain had a three-pronged appeal, including “the failure to consider evidence”, an “error in the judge’s factual findings” and the weight given to certain evidence.

A lawyer for the Samaan family criticised KFC’s appeal submissions, describing them as “an amorphous restatement” of what was said during the trial.

The lawyer for KFC denied this.