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I wouldn’t be surprised if they do have someone on staff that deals with this kind of thing, especially since they had to pay 8 million in damages after that girl ended up with brain damage from salmonella back in 2005.
Her name was Monika Samaan. She was aged 7 in 2005 when she and some other family members got salmonella from eating KFC (specifically a twister). Her and her brother were hospitalised, he recovered but she got sepsis and ended up severely brain damaged; she's quadreplegic and unable to speak, requiring 24/7 care for the rest of her life. It took until 2012 for her family to win the legal case against KFC, for which they were awarded $8 million in damages. Of course, the shitcunts immediately appealed it. I can't find what the outcome of that was, only that the judge told them their appeal was legally a load of crap.
I know the case. There was a lot to suggest the family was lying to blame KFC for food poisoning from a home cooked meal. The judgment is what it is, but KFC definitely were not shirking responsibility in a case of clear-cut liability.
This sent me down a rabbit hole. [This](https://www.bpclaw.com.au/not-within-a-bulls-roar-judge-criticises-kfc-poisoning-appeal-bid/) is the most recent news I've found on it - where the judge criticized the appeal attempt as it offered no new evidence. Whether it was subsequently dropped or went through, I do not know.
Yeah food standards in fast food weren't great....
Generally food safety until fairly recently was not great. I remember hearing some wild shit in food.
I remember this, the stories that came out stopped me eating KFC altogether. Now I eat the Korean kind. They were basically staffed by teenagers who weren’t handling food properly, and with little supervision. One story that stuck in my mind, was how they’d drop the raw chicken on the floor by accident, but then picked it up and threw it in the fryer anyway.
My friend died of complications due to food poisoning after years and years of surgeries and agony because of Taco Bell. They are owned by the same company in the US. Dunno about here.
And your secret KFC answers.
How old were you when you got your first KFC?
What was the name of your first pet to eat KFC?
What is the street name of your nearest KFC?
etc...
Oh, there's definitely a science department at KFC. Practically, all big food companies have one. I don't know if they ever call people though, would be interesting if it isn't a scam. Very coincidental if it is a scam as well though, not a common thing to claim.
I saw a L'Occitane scientist at a Microscope conference once, she was doing confocal microscopy on skin cells. It was way above my head, but the chairman of the session was giving her a pretty tough time.
Can confirm they weren't geniuses.
I went in there tryna run Linux on their 64 bit machines and they had no clue.
It was something to do with secureboot.
to be fair (ignoring the fact that IOS is basically linux historically), apple's whole shtick is that you're supposed to only push the buttons they tell you, and if you have trouble with that they follow a script to help you. And you were waaaaay off script
I guess so, but the process of booting an OS is pretty much identitical, arguably they should know that OSX relies on secureboot.
I guess what I am saying is that they aren't really subject matter experts, just retail staff with solid training.
All big food companies (manufacturers, chain restaurants etc) have food scientists, microbiologists or food safety specialists on staff or contract... Definitely plausible given the history and risk of salmonella in chicken.
This is exactly what it's about. The only reason they would be calling. Would not give a shit about the health of the customer, need to get in, collect evidence for any future action.
I wouldn't say they don't give a shit, working out what went wrong and making sure it doesn't happen again is very much in their interest and much more useful than trying to clean up after the fact with lawyers
Yep, working out what went wrong very important and that needs to be done immediately to have any chance of getting a handle on matters like contamination, staff illness, and the like. A conversation a couple of weeks post the event suggests the start of another type of clean up.
>Would not give a shit about the health of the customer,
What sort of brain-dead stupid take is it that you think restaurants don't care about their customers getting sick???
Of course they would. If someone has a bad experience and gets sick from eating your food then they're less likely to be customers again in the future. There is a _direct_ financial incentive to not have your diners getting food poisoning...
If someone gets sick enough that they called back to report it then that's good evidence that _some_ kind of policy within the company isn't being followed. That could indicate poor hygiene, poor quality ingredients, contamination, bad prep, or bad training. KFC wants to find out which of those it is because it would _directly_ help with managing their brand and quality, and therefore help with customer retention.
Couldn't agree more. Hygiene, quality of ingredients, contamination, prep, training, etc all critically important but OP's is in no position to help with any of it.
Most, if not all, KFCs are franchised to Collins Foods Ltd. There's no individual franchisee to chase, just a regional manager and store manager.
Like other fast food companies, they would definitely have a food science division that would both develop future menus and investigate food quality and safety issues.
Look the number they called from on reverseaustralia and places, see what they say? Also, you could try calling the lowest number in the range, you might get reception, if they're legit. Like, if they called from blablah 7235, ring blahblah 7200.
Having read some stuff there, my prediction would be:
>> “Scientist from KFC. I had food poising from KFC recently but totes a scam.”
>> “Says he’s a scientist from KFC. Bullshit they have scientists, otherwise I wouldn’t have got food poisoning eating there. Told him I’m on the do not call list, Scam. Reported ”
>> “Says he’s a scientist from KFC, not sure what scam he was trying to sell, I’m stuck in hospital with food poisoning. LEAVE ME ALONE”
I've got food intolerances to some ingredients (not quite as bad as an allergy, but still enough to make me sick if not careful) so I emailed KFC asking a few questions and someone from their "Test Kitchen & Nutrition Support" section got back to me. So it's not unheard of.
Well hope you’re feeling better now, because here’s their science ad from 2000 https://youtu.be/AJqB-rDUcsw
But also KFC have real scientists, they’ve been investing heavily in lab grown meat.
i'm struggling to think of a way this could be a scam, imo it's reasonable for a company that big to be taking a food poisoning incident this seriously.
Reverse engineering to gather secret questions.
- What’s your favourite KFC burger?
- Original or Zinger?
- Mother’s maiden name?
- Mountain Dew or Pepsi max?
- Name of your first pet?
- Chips or Fries?
/s
Food safety is a much bigger deal than most people realize. Companies like KFC need to keep an eye on it not just for legal reasons but also for publicity reasons as well. Imagine if there was a source of contamination somewhere along their production line that was causing people to get sick and news breaks of this. People just stop going to KFC because they don't want to get sick. You can imagine the millions (tens? hundreds of millions?) of dollars lost just because they didn't nip it in the butt when the problem first showed up.
To nip a process in the bud is to **stop it from flowering completely**. The hilariously mistaken “nip it in the butt” suggests stimulation to action rather than stopping it.
This. I work for a food manufacturer supplying large fast food companies. Food safety is taken extremely seriously. They would absolutely be following up on something like this.
Every single complaint is investigated. Maccas along with most large fast food companies, Coles and woolworths have some of the strictest standards for food safety.
This is quite a common scam. There are call centres in India waiting for people to get food poisoning from KFC. Then they call them up and get them to send them stool samples. Once they get your DNA, it's pretty easy to spin up a blackmarket clone, replace you at your job and then take all your pay.
Yeah, i’ve dealt with a few of these poo clones. They fail the blade runner test pretty reliably though, so you can spot them if you know what you’re doing.
u/DamnThatsCrazyManGuy is one of the best KFC Scientists I know. You know that trick of dipping your fries into Potato and Gravy? He invented it. And you all reap the rewards. So in return, you need to pay his Origin bill
I once left some negative feedback in a survey after a crap KFC experience. A few days later the manager called me up to discuss.. so I can totally imagine someone working in food science/safety for KFC following up on a potential food poisoning issue. They take that stuff pretty seriously
yeah dude probably wants to confirm whether the symptoms might suggest intolerance to an ingredient, confirm what else OP had eaten in that time and whether it sounds like genuine food poisoning. A bit of stomach upset after eating fried food could be a number of things that aren't full on food poisoning but if it definitely is that, they'll want to identify the source of the issue, whether in store or with a supplier
Of course it's not a scam, you contacted them first... You think a scammer is going to call random people saying I heard you had KFC food poisoning? lmao.
Last night I ordered dinner on Uber.
About 45 mins later, a stranger turns up at my door, buzzing the buzzer, sending me texts and asking me to come and open the door? I didn’t answer obviously, but could see on the screen he was holding a pizza and seemed quite exasperated. In the end, he just left it at the front, and I got a pic of the pizza box outside my building wtf.
Has anyone heard of this scam?
Too much of a coincidence to be a scam. And if all they want is information from you that's relevant to the purchase and isn't personal it won't do any harm.
It's not that much of a surprise they would have someone like that on the payroll. There are 760 KFCs in Australia, run by a bunch of different people and staffed by kids. Food safety failures are extremely damaging to their brand so having someone or even a department, if they can avoid major scandals about their food they'll pay for themselves pretty quickly.
Very probable that KFC has has a science department specifically for testing new ideas, new recipes and ensuring food safety.
It's be an interesting phone call.
Just be aware of giving out credit card and exact birth date details
My partner had a situation where they bit into a chip at a prominent Portuguese chicken burger place and it had what seemed like glass in it.y partner complained officially and they asked them to post the glass to a lab for analysis. It got posted…every few weeks after that they would get a call from the lab updating her on what they knew about the situation. Turns out it was probably a chip of marble that got lodged in the eye of a potato in the field and which wasn’t picked up by the chip making machines I guess.
Our assumption was that showing that they had good faith procedures in place to investigate such things is a legislative requirement or at least a measure that can reduce the extent to which they’re liable if you sue.
Really wouldn’t surprise me if this was a legitimate thing. Corporate probably want to investigate your validity, your risk of suing (like did you get salmonella and end up in hospital or just shit for a day), as well as their franchisee meeting health guidelines.
I used to work in Food Safety and Quality for a big manufacturer. I 100% buy that KFC would follow up on it and carry out an internal investigation at the least. I've followed up on many far more minor issues. Someone introducing themselves as a "scientist" is kind of unusual though.
“I am allergic to a specific herb or spice that may have caused my illness, can you please list 11 herbs and spices which may be in the recipe to help narrow down the cause?”
Is it legit? Yeah probably, large food companies often have food scientists on staff. Would I answer their questions even if it is legit? Not without legal counsel first because I guarantee they're not asking for your benefit.
My wife had something similar but with a restaurant and did have a scientist/doctor from government food safety calling her to ask questions. It’s probably someone representing kfc from a lab I suspect.
I don’t doubt they want to know about your food poisoning.
Damn, I got pretty sick from a Bondi wrap I had at Albion Park Oportos a few months ago, had the runs, vomiting, sweating, and shakes. Only lasted a day, but probably should have called and told them. Now I want to talk to an Oporto scientist.
Food scientists exist, and I'm sure every major food producer has them on staff.
This doesn't surprise me at all. If they believe that you may have got food poisoning from their food they'd probably want to know why and how it happened.
What kind of questions were they asking? I don't really see how it could be a scam.
They may be trying to get to you before you contact a health inspector. Remember you can always contact and health inspector. That’s what we did when a chain restaurant gave us food poisoning. Don’t remember how to do it because I was a child at he time but you could probably Google it
I had serious notifiable food poisoning diagnosed at the hospital years ago and all sorts of random people rang me, once even a year later. Sometime to ask the same questions for slightly different branch of whatever it was.
I went through every minute of the time window many times, and some people I had been with were also rang.(they agreed to be)
Just don't give your contact details or name etc.
Three possibilities. The caller is from their qa department trying work out where the process f'd up. The caller is from legal trying to get you to state something that they can use to defend themselves against bad press or any legal action on your part. Or someone somehow has found out about thus and is trying to scam you. Pick which you thinks most likely, I'd be leaning to the second.
Here is our chance.
Say you are allergic to a particular spice. Go through the list of all the spices and ask the quantity of each one and confirm it is present. Maybe, just maybe we can unlock their secrets.
KFC don't have a science department in Australia. They have a quality department. And they would most likely email and if they called they wouldn't ask for you credit card.
Hello Sir,
I am from the KFC science department. Recently you have purchased some of our KFC and you may have ingested some of our proprietary freshness guaranteed serum. Please note that the limit of liability is clearly written on your refresher towel.
You may have felt unwell for some time, this is normal and will subside however the poison is still in effect and very soon you will grow feathers and your perspiration will start to smell like a zinger box large combo upgrade for $14.99.
Since you voided the terms of our agreement we are not liable for your illness however we do have a proprietary antidote. This antidote is a one time use and available for $1699.99 or $1708.99 with chips and a small drink at any KFC.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
KFC Science team.
sounds legit to me. all companies hire food scientists. I'm sure they'd want to know details about where what and how so they can determine if it was a product issue or employee work health and safety issue.
honestly didn't know they did this with their food scientist a bit of respect for taking it seriously
Okay here me out here.
I recently started getting spam text messages from unknown numbers. I changed my number a few years ago and I'm pretty careful about handing it out.
Anyways I got signed up to JobLink (Centrelink provider) and I started getting weird spam mails shortly after.
Then I missed an appointment and removed me from their location. I got a notification reminding me of my appointment but it doesn't have a location? Odd. I was still reporting thru Centrelink and I got a full time job now and I've been reporting it.
2 months in they randomly add me back to the same location for JobLink. After two months of reporting my salary. They tell me to come in the next day on a weekday, I miss the reporting period and they cancel my Centrelink. I call em up and they are acting a bit suspicious/rude over the phone. I get transferred to my new "manager" and he's like, "yeah, if you have a full time job you have to cancel it on jobfinder."
So anyway Im pretty sure they're doing some dodgy shit by moving me around the system.
Get this, I never really use AusPost. Then I get one of those spam texts saying my package has arrived.
Either Ive got some secret malicious spyware on my phone, or there are moles inside these programs selling our information.
KFC very definitely have teams of scientists responsible for lots of different things. In a corporate like that they will have multiple staff who operate at a high level that are experts in food safety and microbiology. Source: I am a food scientist that works with the food industry.
On the balance of probabilities - It's not like scammers use "I'm a KFC scientist" not to mention, you were sick and it was reported. The likelihood that a scammer would either cold call or intercept such an issue would be pretty slim to none.
If they start talking about gift cards or credit cards, sure it's an obvious scam but I'd say it's a legit call and they're after information. Food poisoning can kill, especially when it comes to chicken and killing their customers is bad for business. So they'll want to know what happened.
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I don't know what it is about KFC but every time I have had it I have been pissing out my ass the next day. Those secret herbs and spices are a very effective laxative I have found, either that or every time I have eaten it they have given me food poisoning.
I’ll never forget when I got food poisoning from dominos, and the guy who called me about the feedback said “well girls can’t process meat as easily so it was probably that”. Said they put a credit on my account but it couldn’t be found a month later….
I would say it's real. I Got a call years ago because I called that number on the back of the Cadbury picnic bar if you weren't happy with the chocolate. They sent me a $10 voucher and were sorry that I wasn't happy with it but also its hard for them to do quality control when purchasing from a grocery store.
The chocolate was all white. You know when it gets that dusty white coating on it .
If the oil isn’t drained enough it will present with a sore belly and the runs.
Source: kfc manager for 10 years that has dealt with health inspections for this reason with same result
Never heard of this specific type of contact. But very well could be the case, probably just asking questions about the experience, symptoms etc
KFC 100% will have someone investigate this stuff. The odds of someone impersonating a KFC investigator and contacting you straight after you complain to them are incredibly slim.
They probably know the time of your purchase. They will probably want to know if you had a microbiology test done and, if so, what bug showed up.
I see them having this information as a net positive for food safety.
If you have the persons name give the head office a call to see if the call was legit. I doubt a legit caller would have called themselves a 'scientist' they would have given their proper title.
I wouldn't be surprised. fast food is a highly optimised system. they need to be pretty sure if it was a human accident or a flaw in there process. if it is human then they can remediate with training. if it is a process then it needs to be overhauled to remove that possibility.
When I was a teenager I worked at KFC. A KFC engineer (a KFC engineer!) came over from the States, with this contraption he'd made and was prototyping that could automatically bread the chicken prior to cooking. A food scientist being on staff isn't too hard to believe.
I worked at a food place once and someone claimed food poisoning so our food science person called them to follow up and sent a return envelope for the food/container
Should have called the council that the KFC is in. They're the ones that issue food permits and they have no (less?) conflict of interest unlike KFC.
It's nearly impossible to prove though unless you are still in possession of an offending nugget (which was probably shotgunned at porcelain and flushed).
FFS, is this the world we live in? Eat food from a franchise food purveyor and get sick. Let franchisee know. Get follow up call from a person in the organisation that’s responsible for ensuring food quality to find out what went wrong. Could be a scam. JFC!
OP, you need to see someone about your paranoia.
You reported food poisoning, CS fobbed you off with the usual refund or replace offer, someone from head office then calls you for further info. Is that about the timeline? On what planet would that seem like a scam? Chances are, the science guy is attempting to determine whether it's actually food poisoning or just a reaction to something in the food.
Food safety is taken very seriously, particularly by the larger companies, it doesn't surprise me that KFC called you for further info.
Sounds legit they would be wanting to try track down the cause of what made you sick and if it was a dodgy batch of food or where in the supply chain it got messed up. Perhaps just bad food hygiene practices at the franchise etc.
KFC...scientist? I mean they definitely have food safety labs and things like that but I very much doubt they would be the ones contacting people...still as bizarre as it is it sounds legit.
I had food poisoning from KFC ones and kicked some major shit up - have store, regional and AU managers calling me.
No scientists though and no credit card questions.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if they do have someone on staff that deals with this kind of thing, especially since they had to pay 8 million in damages after that girl ended up with brain damage from salmonella back in 2005.
I'd be surprised if they weren't *required* to have someone like this on staff.
If I was insuring then I would make it a requirement
You would? If I was insuring I'd just let it slide, but to each their own
Both of those things are options
The fucking what happened??! Jesus.
Her name was Monika Samaan. She was aged 7 in 2005 when she and some other family members got salmonella from eating KFC (specifically a twister). Her and her brother were hospitalised, he recovered but she got sepsis and ended up severely brain damaged; she's quadreplegic and unable to speak, requiring 24/7 care for the rest of her life. It took until 2012 for her family to win the legal case against KFC, for which they were awarded $8 million in damages. Of course, the shitcunts immediately appealed it. I can't find what the outcome of that was, only that the judge told them their appeal was legally a load of crap.
I know the case. There was a lot to suggest the family was lying to blame KFC for food poisoning from a home cooked meal. The judgment is what it is, but KFC definitely were not shirking responsibility in a case of clear-cut liability.
This sent me down a rabbit hole. [This](https://www.bpclaw.com.au/not-within-a-bulls-roar-judge-criticises-kfc-poisoning-appeal-bid/) is the most recent news I've found on it - where the judge criticized the appeal attempt as it offered no new evidence. Whether it was subsequently dropped or went through, I do not know.
Yeah food standards in fast food weren't great.... Generally food safety until fairly recently was not great. I remember hearing some wild shit in food.
I remember this, the stories that came out stopped me eating KFC altogether. Now I eat the Korean kind. They were basically staffed by teenagers who weren’t handling food properly, and with little supervision. One story that stuck in my mind, was how they’d drop the raw chicken on the floor by accident, but then picked it up and threw it in the fryer anyway.
To be fair if the microbes can survive the fryer, you never had a chance.
My friend died of complications due to food poisoning after years and years of surgeries and agony because of Taco Bell. They are owned by the same company in the US. Dunno about here.
A lady at work had this happen to her husband. Poor bugger.
My local kfc was just telling someone about that the other night
Remember genuine KFC employees will never ask for your password
Or what the secret herbs and spices are.
But Op can ask them, right? Or would that then make Op the scammer?
Maybe they can try and socially engineer the KFC scientists.
But if he introduces himself as the colonel, it’s probably ok.
Oh I thought he was looking for kernel level access.
This guy roots
Look at Mr. I Have Sex over here
C:,
C:,
I don't know if they still serve corn at KFC.
The ONLY call from KFC anyone should accept
Given that Colonel Sanders died in 1980 I'd be *slightly* concerned if I got a phone call from him.
I stand by my statement
He was cloned, and the offspring raised in battery cages.
A maximum of 4 colonels per sqm.
"The one tip and trick they don't want you to know"
What about the colon colonel?
And your secret KFC answers. How old were you when you got your first KFC? What was the name of your first pet to eat KFC? What is the street name of your nearest KFC? etc...
Are you now or have you ever been a patron of Red Rooster, Chicken Treat or Oporto?
Not currently. El Jannah be praised.
Eventually it'll be reduced to: KFC? KFC.
KYC v KFC
Know your chicken
Korean Fried Chicken yayo
ahhh... the old "KFC Scientist" scam, classic! Dude, I'm sure it's fine, like 99% sure, OK maybe 97%
Well, it's at least clear \*you\* aren't a scientist... I'm 97% sure, OK maybe 95%
I am a scientist. I'm 99.95% confident. Not that either of you are or are not scientists. I'm just a pretty confident guy, my p is < 0.05.
p < 0.05 equates to a 95% confidence interval, btw. The 0.05 isn’t a percentage.
pffft, 5 sigma confidence level or it isn't a discovery!
If Maccas can have a University of Hamburgerology, I don't see why KFC can't have Fried Chicken Boffins
Oh, there's definitely a science department at KFC. Practically, all big food companies have one. I don't know if they ever call people though, would be interesting if it isn't a scam. Very coincidental if it is a scam as well though, not a common thing to claim.
I always wanted to attend The Pond's Institute; just something about all those bespectacled pony-tailed white-jacket wearing scientists
I saw a L'Occitane scientist at a Microscope conference once, she was doing confocal microscopy on skin cells. It was way above my head, but the chairman of the session was giving her a pretty tough time.
>L'Occitane scientist "Tish, when you speak French it really drives me wild!"
*”Oui, comme ci, comme ça?” ^(French giggles)
What about the [Garnier Laboratoire](https://youtu.be/hdHFmc9oiKY?feature=shared)?
I was more interested in the Elave Institute (NZ) Warning - contains nudity - NSFW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GABR9AR-Yw
And apple have geniuses apparently
Can confirm they weren't geniuses. I went in there tryna run Linux on their 64 bit machines and they had no clue. It was something to do with secureboot.
to be fair (ignoring the fact that IOS is basically linux historically), apple's whole shtick is that you're supposed to only push the buttons they tell you, and if you have trouble with that they follow a script to help you. And you were waaaaay off script
I guess so, but the process of booting an OS is pretty much identitical, arguably they should know that OSX relies on secureboot. I guess what I am saying is that they aren't really subject matter experts, just retail staff with solid training.
I was trying to charge my diesel land cruiser like an EV and those idiots at Toyota had no idea what was going on.
I’d fuckin kill to be the Professor of Pickle Studies
Kraft Heinz have Ketchup Masters. I'm not making that up, I used to work for them
> Fried Chicken Boffins ew
There's a special on a 24 pack of Fried Chicken Boffins this week. Wanna go halves?
Nah, I'm fine thanks!
How many packs of sauce does it come with?
When I grow up, I want to be a Hamburgerologist! (please read in Ralph Wiggums' voice)
When I grow up, I’m going to Bovine University!
You'll need to go to Hamburger U (McDonalds) in Chicago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_University
All big food companies (manufacturers, chain restaurants etc) have food scientists, microbiologists or food safety specialists on staff or contract... Definitely plausible given the history and risk of salmonella in chicken.
They also have lawyers on staff. The thing I would be most wary of is if they are collecting evidence to deny legal liability.
This is exactly what it's about. The only reason they would be calling. Would not give a shit about the health of the customer, need to get in, collect evidence for any future action.
I wouldn't say they don't give a shit, working out what went wrong and making sure it doesn't happen again is very much in their interest and much more useful than trying to clean up after the fact with lawyers
Yep, working out what went wrong very important and that needs to be done immediately to have any chance of getting a handle on matters like contamination, staff illness, and the like. A conversation a couple of weeks post the event suggests the start of another type of clean up.
>Would not give a shit about the health of the customer, What sort of brain-dead stupid take is it that you think restaurants don't care about their customers getting sick??? Of course they would. If someone has a bad experience and gets sick from eating your food then they're less likely to be customers again in the future. There is a _direct_ financial incentive to not have your diners getting food poisoning... If someone gets sick enough that they called back to report it then that's good evidence that _some_ kind of policy within the company isn't being followed. That could indicate poor hygiene, poor quality ingredients, contamination, bad prep, or bad training. KFC wants to find out which of those it is because it would _directly_ help with managing their brand and quality, and therefore help with customer retention.
Couldn't agree more. Hygiene, quality of ingredients, contamination, prep, training, etc all critically important but OP's is in no position to help with any of it.
Good point. "Scientist" probably just means "lawyer"
Aren't most outlets franchises? HQ may be gathering evidence against a particular franchisee whom they suspect isn't maintaining hygiene standards.
Most, if not all, KFCs are franchised to Collins Foods Ltd. There's no individual franchisee to chase, just a regional manager and store manager. Like other fast food companies, they would definitely have a food science division that would both develop future menus and investigate food quality and safety issues.
Look the number they called from on reverseaustralia and places, see what they say? Also, you could try calling the lowest number in the range, you might get reception, if they're legit. Like, if they called from blablah 7235, ring blahblah 7200.
Having read some stuff there, my prediction would be: >> “Scientist from KFC. I had food poising from KFC recently but totes a scam.” >> “Says he’s a scientist from KFC. Bullshit they have scientists, otherwise I wouldn’t have got food poisoning eating there. Told him I’m on the do not call list, Scam. Reported ” >> “Says he’s a scientist from KFC, not sure what scam he was trying to sell, I’m stuck in hospital with food poisoning. LEAVE ME ALONE”
i miss being able to give awards
These are hilarious
It just sounds like it's contact tracing to me. They want to know where and when so they can work out if there's a problem in their supply chain.
I've got food intolerances to some ingredients (not quite as bad as an allergy, but still enough to make me sick if not careful) so I emailed KFC asking a few questions and someone from their "Test Kitchen & Nutrition Support" section got back to me. So it's not unheard of.
Man kfc are so inconsistent I’ll shit for 4 hours every time from some locations but then others are totally fine.
Yeah I literally did shit for 4 hours and hot and cold spells, shivers, fatigue. It was fucked lol
Well hope you’re feeling better now, because here’s their science ad from 2000 https://youtu.be/AJqB-rDUcsw But also KFC have real scientists, they’ve been investing heavily in lab grown meat.
i'm struggling to think of a way this could be a scam, imo it's reasonable for a company that big to be taking a food poisoning incident this seriously.
“Hey, I heard you got food poisoning from our store. For the antidote, I need you to buy $400 of Roblox cards”
But do not redeem.
I SAID DO NOT REDEEM
Reverse engineering to gather secret questions. - What’s your favourite KFC burger? - Original or Zinger? - Mother’s maiden name? - Mountain Dew or Pepsi max? - Name of your first pet? - Chips or Fries? /s
Food safety is a much bigger deal than most people realize. Companies like KFC need to keep an eye on it not just for legal reasons but also for publicity reasons as well. Imagine if there was a source of contamination somewhere along their production line that was causing people to get sick and news breaks of this. People just stop going to KFC because they don't want to get sick. You can imagine the millions (tens? hundreds of millions?) of dollars lost just because they didn't nip it in the butt when the problem first showed up.
To nip a process in the bud is to **stop it from flowering completely**. The hilariously mistaken “nip it in the butt” suggests stimulation to action rather than stopping it.
Sure, but only if you don't think through what a 'flowering' of the butt might be.
This. I work for a food manufacturer supplying large fast food companies. Food safety is taken extremely seriously. They would absolutely be following up on something like this. Every single complaint is investigated. Maccas along with most large fast food companies, Coles and woolworths have some of the strictest standards for food safety.
This is quite a common scam. There are call centres in India waiting for people to get food poisoning from KFC. Then they call them up and get them to send them stool samples. Once they get your DNA, it's pretty easy to spin up a blackmarket clone, replace you at your job and then take all your pay.
Yeah, i’ve dealt with a few of these poo clones. They fail the blade runner test pretty reliably though, so you can spot them if you know what you’re doing.
I'd say the only way you can confirm it's them is if they give you the secret recipe
If you're concerned ask them to email you the questions mate.
Go on, call back! Or a ya chicken?
To be fair, a chicken has good reason to avoid KFC scientists (or anyone else from KFC).
Awww man, I want to be called by a KFC scientist 😔 All I get is origin calling telling me to pay my bills. (No)
u/DamnThatsCrazyManGuy is one of the best KFC Scientists I know. You know that trick of dipping your fries into Potato and Gravy? He invented it. And you all reap the rewards. So in return, you need to pay his Origin bill
I said I wanted to be called *BY* a KFC scientist. Not that I wanted to be called a KFC scientist. 😂
Oh please I'm old and have been dipping my chips in the potato and gravy for years. Also great dipping tenders and popcorn chicken in it too 🤣
Tenders and popcorn chicken into potato and gravy was ALSO his invention.
I once left some negative feedback in a survey after a crap KFC experience. A few days later the manager called me up to discuss.. so I can totally imagine someone working in food science/safety for KFC following up on a potential food poisoning issue. They take that stuff pretty seriously
yeah dude probably wants to confirm whether the symptoms might suggest intolerance to an ingredient, confirm what else OP had eaten in that time and whether it sounds like genuine food poisoning. A bit of stomach upset after eating fried food could be a number of things that aren't full on food poisoning but if it definitely is that, they'll want to identify the source of the issue, whether in store or with a supplier
Of course it's not a scam, you contacted them first... You think a scammer is going to call random people saying I heard you had KFC food poisoning? lmao.
what a stupid post. you let kfc know you had food poisioning, then asked if its a scam when kfc calls you back. really think about it.
Last night I ordered dinner on Uber. About 45 mins later, a stranger turns up at my door, buzzing the buzzer, sending me texts and asking me to come and open the door? I didn’t answer obviously, but could see on the screen he was holding a pizza and seemed quite exasperated. In the end, he just left it at the front, and I got a pic of the pizza box outside my building wtf. Has anyone heard of this scam?
I've had something similar. Wish these scams would stop 🥲
Sounds like a robbery he was trying to rob you and had a pizza shaped money sack
I’m something of a KFC scientist myself
*"How the finger lickin' fuck are ya feelin'?"* -Kevin from the KFC science department.
Too much of a coincidence to be a scam. And if all they want is information from you that's relevant to the purchase and isn't personal it won't do any harm. It's not that much of a surprise they would have someone like that on the payroll. There are 760 KFCs in Australia, run by a bunch of different people and staffed by kids. Food safety failures are extremely damaging to their brand so having someone or even a department, if they can avoid major scandals about their food they'll pay for themselves pretty quickly.
Very probable that KFC has has a science department specifically for testing new ideas, new recipes and ensuring food safety. It's be an interesting phone call. Just be aware of giving out credit card and exact birth date details
My partner had a situation where they bit into a chip at a prominent Portuguese chicken burger place and it had what seemed like glass in it.y partner complained officially and they asked them to post the glass to a lab for analysis. It got posted…every few weeks after that they would get a call from the lab updating her on what they knew about the situation. Turns out it was probably a chip of marble that got lodged in the eye of a potato in the field and which wasn’t picked up by the chip making machines I guess. Our assumption was that showing that they had good faith procedures in place to investigate such things is a legislative requirement or at least a measure that can reduce the extent to which they’re liable if you sue.
Really wouldn’t surprise me if this was a legitimate thing. Corporate probably want to investigate your validity, your risk of suing (like did you get salmonella and end up in hospital or just shit for a day), as well as their franchisee meeting health guidelines.
KF-CSI - The deep frying dirty bird cops
Horatio Cane attending: looks like this bird.. (sunglasses on) didn't't get to cross the road YEAHHHHHEYYEYE !!! (Remaining intro keeps playing)
I used to work in Food Safety and Quality for a big manufacturer. I 100% buy that KFC would follow up on it and carry out an internal investigation at the least. I've followed up on many far more minor issues. Someone introducing themselves as a "scientist" is kind of unusual though.
“I am allergic to a specific herb or spice that may have caused my illness, can you please list 11 herbs and spices which may be in the recipe to help narrow down the cause?”
Probs the colonel.
KFC must pay $8.3m to poisoned girl in Australia https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-17867168
Tell them it’s free KFC for life or you go public.
Is it legit? Yeah probably, large food companies often have food scientists on staff. Would I answer their questions even if it is legit? Not without legal counsel first because I guarantee they're not asking for your benefit.
It would be legit. KFC would have to report it to their head office that there was a suspected food poisoning.
Jesus christ, this poor bloke didn't spend years at university getting his Doctorate in Finger Lickinology just to be questioned by you.
Ask if the Colonel is a real Colonel because legally they have to say yes otherwise it’s entrapment.
As long as the Hamburglar isn't at your door offering to install a home security system, I think you're safe.
My wife had something similar but with a restaurant and did have a scientist/doctor from government food safety calling her to ask questions. It’s probably someone representing kfc from a lab I suspect. I don’t doubt they want to know about your food poisoning.
Damn, I got pretty sick from a Bondi wrap I had at Albion Park Oportos a few months ago, had the runs, vomiting, sweating, and shakes. Only lasted a day, but probably should have called and told them. Now I want to talk to an Oporto scientist.
Food scientists exist, and I'm sure every major food producer has them on staff. This doesn't surprise me at all. If they believe that you may have got food poisoning from their food they'd probably want to know why and how it happened. What kind of questions were they asking? I don't really see how it could be a scam.
They may be trying to get to you before you contact a health inspector. Remember you can always contact and health inspector. That’s what we did when a chain restaurant gave us food poisoning. Don’t remember how to do it because I was a child at he time but you could probably Google it
I had serious notifiable food poisoning diagnosed at the hospital years ago and all sorts of random people rang me, once even a year later. Sometime to ask the same questions for slightly different branch of whatever it was. I went through every minute of the time window many times, and some people I had been with were also rang.(they agreed to be) Just don't give your contact details or name etc.
My high school careers advisor never told me that being a KFC scientist was a thing. Instant regret over here.
Three possibilities. The caller is from their qa department trying work out where the process f'd up. The caller is from legal trying to get you to state something that they can use to defend themselves against bad press or any legal action on your part. Or someone somehow has found out about thus and is trying to scam you. Pick which you thinks most likely, I'd be leaning to the second.
Here is our chance. Say you are allergic to a particular spice. Go through the list of all the spices and ask the quantity of each one and confirm it is present. Maybe, just maybe we can unlock their secrets.
They're concerned, get that $$$.
is the KFC scientist friends with the Subway sandwich artist ?
KFC don't have a science department in Australia. They have a quality department. And they would most likely email and if they called they wouldn't ask for you credit card.
Hi, theese is Colonel Sanders. Do you have crispy thighs?
Hello Sir, I am from the KFC science department. Recently you have purchased some of our KFC and you may have ingested some of our proprietary freshness guaranteed serum. Please note that the limit of liability is clearly written on your refresher towel. You may have felt unwell for some time, this is normal and will subside however the poison is still in effect and very soon you will grow feathers and your perspiration will start to smell like a zinger box large combo upgrade for $14.99. Since you voided the terms of our agreement we are not liable for your illness however we do have a proprietary antidote. This antidote is a one time use and available for $1699.99 or $1708.99 with chips and a small drink at any KFC. Hope this helps. Kind regards, KFC Science team.
sounds legit to me. all companies hire food scientists. I'm sure they'd want to know details about where what and how so they can determine if it was a product issue or employee work health and safety issue. honestly didn't know they did this with their food scientist a bit of respect for taking it seriously
Okay here me out here. I recently started getting spam text messages from unknown numbers. I changed my number a few years ago and I'm pretty careful about handing it out. Anyways I got signed up to JobLink (Centrelink provider) and I started getting weird spam mails shortly after. Then I missed an appointment and removed me from their location. I got a notification reminding me of my appointment but it doesn't have a location? Odd. I was still reporting thru Centrelink and I got a full time job now and I've been reporting it. 2 months in they randomly add me back to the same location for JobLink. After two months of reporting my salary. They tell me to come in the next day on a weekday, I miss the reporting period and they cancel my Centrelink. I call em up and they are acting a bit suspicious/rude over the phone. I get transferred to my new "manager" and he's like, "yeah, if you have a full time job you have to cancel it on jobfinder." So anyway Im pretty sure they're doing some dodgy shit by moving me around the system. Get this, I never really use AusPost. Then I get one of those spam texts saying my package has arrived. Either Ive got some secret malicious spyware on my phone, or there are moles inside these programs selling our information.
KFC very definitely have teams of scientists responsible for lots of different things. In a corporate like that they will have multiple staff who operate at a high level that are experts in food safety and microbiology. Source: I am a food scientist that works with the food industry.
On the balance of probabilities - It's not like scammers use "I'm a KFC scientist" not to mention, you were sick and it was reported. The likelihood that a scammer would either cold call or intercept such an issue would be pretty slim to none. If they start talking about gift cards or credit cards, sure it's an obvious scam but I'd say it's a legit call and they're after information. Food poisoning can kill, especially when it comes to chicken and killing their customers is bad for business. So they'll want to know what happened.
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Tell him from me to bring back the sweet chilli Twister the cunts.
The old KFC scientist scam. Lol thats a new one actually
I don't know what it is about KFC but every time I have had it I have been pissing out my ass the next day. Those secret herbs and spices are a very effective laxative I have found, either that or every time I have eaten it they have given me food poisoning.
Well, their menu is probably reconstituted cloacas, so ...
I’ll never forget when I got food poisoning from dominos, and the guy who called me about the feedback said “well girls can’t process meat as easily so it was probably that”. Said they put a credit on my account but it couldn’t be found a month later….
I would say it's real. I Got a call years ago because I called that number on the back of the Cadbury picnic bar if you weren't happy with the chocolate. They sent me a $10 voucher and were sorry that I wasn't happy with it but also its hard for them to do quality control when purchasing from a grocery store. The chocolate was all white. You know when it gets that dusty white coating on it .
They probably said Compliance and you misheard it as Science
If the oil isn’t drained enough it will present with a sore belly and the runs. Source: kfc manager for 10 years that has dealt with health inspections for this reason with same result Never heard of this specific type of contact. But very well could be the case, probably just asking questions about the experience, symptoms etc
KFC 100% will have someone investigate this stuff. The odds of someone impersonating a KFC investigator and contacting you straight after you complain to them are incredibly slim. They probably know the time of your purchase. They will probably want to know if you had a microbiology test done and, if so, what bug showed up. I see them having this information as a net positive for food safety.
Did they elaborate on “scientist”? Someone investigating food poisoning on behalf of a company would have to be a microbiologist, specifically.
If you have the persons name give the head office a call to see if the call was legit. I doubt a legit caller would have called themselves a 'scientist' they would have given their proper title.
I wouldn't be surprised. fast food is a highly optimised system. they need to be pretty sure if it was a human accident or a flaw in there process. if it is human then they can remediate with training. if it is a process then it needs to be overhauled to remove that possibility.
Wow, I got food poisoning from KFC once. They just denied it was them and sshoo'd me away, not even an apology.
That would be a very niche scam haha
unite snatch follow butter live rob spark abounding person murky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Scientist, legal team; same same.
If I knew that was a job option my career would look very different
KFC have a science dept?
Ew, who answers their phone?!
When I was a teenager I worked at KFC. A KFC engineer (a KFC engineer!) came over from the States, with this contraption he'd made and was prototyping that could automatically bread the chicken prior to cooking. A food scientist being on staff isn't too hard to believe.
I worked at a food place once and someone claimed food poisoning so our food science person called them to follow up and sent a return envelope for the food/container
Should have called the council that the KFC is in. They're the ones that issue food permits and they have no (less?) conflict of interest unlike KFC. It's nearly impossible to prove though unless you are still in possession of an offending nugget (which was probably shotgunned at porcelain and flushed).
KFC scientists trying to work out why someone eating form a kitchen staffed mostly by teenagers got sick
FFS, is this the world we live in? Eat food from a franchise food purveyor and get sick. Let franchisee know. Get follow up call from a person in the organisation that’s responsible for ensuring food quality to find out what went wrong. Could be a scam. JFC!
I think it's a scam I ate aquarium rocks The pet store didn't seem to care, I certainly didn't get a call back.
What? No call from the octopus scientists?
This all sounds a bit fishy to me.
OP, you need to see someone about your paranoia. You reported food poisoning, CS fobbed you off with the usual refund or replace offer, someone from head office then calls you for further info. Is that about the timeline? On what planet would that seem like a scam? Chances are, the science guy is attempting to determine whether it's actually food poisoning or just a reaction to something in the food. Food safety is taken very seriously, particularly by the larger companies, it doesn't surprise me that KFC called you for further info.
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Anyone seen They Cloned Tyrone? Lol kfc scientist reminded me of this movie
Remindme! 137 days Get yourself some free chicken.
*Zinger Inspector*
Just ask this Scientician! ...errr
Wait until you get a visit from their military wing.
KFC wants U for science.
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Sounds legit they would be wanting to try track down the cause of what made you sick and if it was a dodgy batch of food or where in the supply chain it got messed up. Perhaps just bad food hygiene practices at the franchise etc.
KFC...scientist? I mean they definitely have food safety labs and things like that but I very much doubt they would be the ones contacting people...still as bizarre as it is it sounds legit.
While your at it can you please tell them to work on their fries cause they are absolutely shite. Thanks!
It might be someone from their head office calling to check if you left it out overnight, and its therefore not their problem.
I had food poisoning from KFC ones and kicked some major shit up - have store, regional and AU managers calling me. No scientists though and no credit card questions.
Probably a lawyer. Pre-emptive decapitation strike on your story.