Sydney KFC sued for $10 million after 7-year-old develops Salmonella and brain damage in 2005
Monika Samaan was seven years old when she collapsed and was rushed to hospital with salmonella poisoning after eating a Twister from the Villawood KFC outlet in Sydney's south west in October 2005.
She has acquired spastic quadriplegia and a profound intellectual disability.
Today, Monika arrived at the New South Wales Supreme Court in a wheelchair (right) as her just over $10 million lawsuit against KFC got underway.
The family's lawyer, Anthony Bartley SC, told the court in his opening address that Monika had been an extremely bright and active young girl before her illness.
Bartley said there was little doubt Monika's illness was caused by salmonella on the chicken she ate, adding, "You will hear unsettling and disturbing practices in the kitchen, including the kitchen KFC operated at its Villawood store.”
To keep up with orders and deliver them with speed to customers, KFC's "young, enthusiastic" staff would frequently help each other out. But by manning different work stations, the staff could easily have transferred bacteria from raw chicken to the cooked product, he added.
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http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/admin/trackback/149192
Reading this article gave me goosebumps. I have traveled to Australia and coincidentally, my first time ever eating KFC was in Aussie. I was with 12 other Americans, and after a 20-hour flight, we stopped at the first restaurant that we saw and recognized, KFC. I have never really eaten at KFC in the U.S., because of the bad publicity it got a few years back, regarding the mistreatment of chickens and also because of the reputation of mediocre food, but I was forced to go along with the crowd. Even though I did not get sick, after reading this article I thought twice about how my food is prepared, and just enforces the three rules I learned by working in a salmonella laboratory: wash your hands, cook your food, and don't eat poop.
There might be another cause of Monica's illness such as monosodium glutamate which is widely used in KFC as a taste enhancer.
Monosodium glutamate excites brain and might be neurotoxic.