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Whether deep-fried or just an extra on the side, a cockroach was definitely included in a customer's chicken wing from fast-food chain KFC, a judge said yesterday.

 Mrs Justice Verina Bokhary crushed a bid by the chain's local franchise holder, Birdland (Hong Kong), to clear its name after it was convicted in Western Court on January 12 of selling a chicken wing with a cockroach.

 Office worker Winnie Chu said she found the insect covered in a layer of oil and stuck to the wing bought from the D'Aguilar Street KFC branch in March last year.

 Birdland was fined $3,000 and ordered to pay $1,000 costs by Magistrate Kevin Browne for selling an article of food which was not of the substance demanded by the purchaser, contrary to the Public Health Ordinance.

 Appealing against the conviction, Birdland lawyer Gary Plowman SC had argued in the Court of First Instance that Mr Browne failed to consider that the insect might have flown on to the food as Ms Chu walked back to her office to eat the chicken.

 'Cockroaches fly,' he had pointed out, among his five grounds for appeal. He had argued that KFC chicken wings were cooked at 166 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes, yet the cockroach in question was merely golden brown.

 'A cockroach would be cooked to a crisp if it had been through that,' he argued.

 Mrs Justice Bokhary dismissed the appeal, 'despite the very able arguments'.

 'I'm satisfied the magistrate considered all relevant circumstances with due care,' she said.

 'The case was not about whether the chicken wing was cooked with the cockroach. It was about whether it was sold with the cockroach.

 '[Ms Chu] was a credible witness . . . and I accept that when she opened the packaging for the first time, she observed the cockroach.' 



Vermin verdict clips chicken chain's wings