KFC’s Fried-Rat Claim

Region

United States

Associated With

KFC - restaurant chain

Defining Feature

A tail-like strip of breading on a disputed chicken tender

Status

Historical event - KFC reported that testing identified the item as chicken

Overview

A photograph posted in June 2015 prompted a disputed claim that KFC had served a customer a fried rat.

Devorise Dixon posted images of a breaded item he said came from his meal. KFC disputed his account. On 22 June, the company said an item supplied through his attorney had been tested and identified as chicken.

A 24 June Southern Courier report reproduced a KFC-released statement naming Food Safety Net Services and a poultry-species ELISA assay. That statement described the sample as poultry. The reviewed coverage does not include the laboratory report itself.

Why It Mattered

The photograph made the allegation easy to share, but appearance alone could not establish what the item was. KFC’s response introduced a different kind of evidence: a reported examination of a submitted sample. The surviving coverage illustrates why attribution matters when a food scare spreads through images: a company’s account of testing and a directly inspected laboratory report offer different levels of verification.

The Viral Allegation

• Eater preserves a Facebook post attributed to Devorise Dixon and dated 12 June 2015.
• Dixon said one piece in a three-piece tender order near Wilmington Avenue and 120th Street was a cooked rat.
• The Los Angeles Times described the memorable shape as a breaded piece attached to a longer strip that could be read as a tail.

KFC’s Reported Test Result

• On 22 June, KFC said Dixon’s attorney had turned over the item the previous Friday and that testing identified it as chicken rather than rat.
• A reproduced KFC statement named Food Safety Net Services, Ltd. and an ELISA-TEK Cooked Poultry Species Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Kit.
• Although some coverage called it a “DNA test”, a reproduced KFC statement specified a poultry-species ELISA assay.

The Disputed Purchase Site

• Dixon placed the alleged purchase near Wilmington Avenue and 120th Street; KFC now lists a restaurant at 11864 Wilmington Ave.
• The restaurant owner reportedly said security footage did not show Dixon as a customer, though the footage was not reviewed in the available reporting.
• No Los Angeles County public-health finding, closure order or complaint determination for the allegation appears in the supplied record.

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