Fare Most Fowl

THIS seems to be the year of the chicken. At least in the Indian context, what with Sushil Sharma's tandoor case and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) losing its licence in Delhi because of lack of sanitation on its premises. While both hog and continue to hog newspaper space, Outlook decided to get to the root of the problem, the chicken in this case, and have it analysed at a chemical laboratory.

The findings not only implicate KFC but put Sandeep Kohli, managing director of KFC's Indian operations, firmly in the dock. While Kohli has been claiming that the MSG (mono sodium glutamate) content in KFC's chicken, at all its outlets, ranged between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent of the total weight of served product, an Outlook-commissioned chemical analysis of KFC chicken done by the Food Researchand Analysis Centre (FRAC) at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, detected MSG levels as high as 1.37 per cent. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (Part X111-64B) clearly specifies that the total glutamate content of ready-to-serve-food should not exceed 1 per cent.

Says Professor T.D. Dogra of the Forensic Department in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences: "Though MSG has a toxic rating of one, medical journals often describe a link between MSG and a distress syndrome after consuming Chinese food.'' Quoting from the Clinical Toxicology of Chemical Products, a publication by Williams and Wilkins, London, Dogra defines the syndrome as similar to that which occurs when subjects are treated with mono amin oxidase inhibitors when challenged by foods rich in tyramine: burning sensations, facial pressure, and chest pains. These same symptoms have been provoked in human subjects by large oral doses of MSG. In fact, as high as 50 per cent of the subjects responded to doses of 4 gm or less. A kilogram of KFC chicken, on the other hand, on the basis of the FRAC's analysis would have 13.7 gm of MSG.

Chicken from Delhi's two other upmarket outlets showed significantly less MSG levels and in the case of the third, Nirula's, a total absence. Whereas chicken from the Le Meridien (La Brasserie) had an MSG level of 0.67 per cent, Ashok Hotel's (Coffee Shop) MSG count was as low as 0.136 per cent.

While MSG was the basis on which the Bangalore Municipal Corporation issued notices of closure to KFC—the matter is currently subjudice—the licence revoking order served by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on KFC'S Delhi outlet stems from the allegedly unhygienic conditions (mainly the detection of two flies) and the use of sodium aluminium phosphate as a baking soda ingredient in chicken.

Though the MCD claims that the use of the chemical is forbidden, it is not so under the FPA Act (Appendix B, A.02). But a WHO-FAO Joint Expert Committee of Food Additives Evaluation did fix an acceptable daily intake of the chemical at 0.6 mg/kg of body weight of the consuming person. MCD, however, hasn't come out yet with the percentage content of the chemical in the KFC sample.

The Outlook–FRAC analysis did, however, show the presence of aluminium in KFC's chicken sample. Says Dr S. K. Saxena, FRAC director: "While the KFC sample showed aluminium traces, the other three samples tested negative." The main medical point of contention here is the acceptable limit of aluminium ion absorption by the human body because of the metal's implication in certain neurotoxic disorders. Says A.P. Hirano, of WHO's environmental health hazard division: "Individuals with chronic renal diseases are highly susceptible to aluminium ion absorption. "

 Kohli, however, is contesting the MCD order cancelling KFC's licence, in the Delhi High Court. The KFC claim is that the chicken controversy is linked to the BJP strategy for the upcoming general elections. But though the MCD's action smacks of more than a little politics in it, given the manner in which it conducted its hearing with the KFC, what's disturbing isKFC's smug assertion that the country's laboratories are incapable of MSG detection. Kohli, on being confronted with the FRAC's findings, was critical of the methods that might have been used by the FRAC. Says he: "We don't know what kind of samples you collected and what was the methodology of examination. I am sure if you had collected chicken samples from any Chinese restaurant you would have found higher MSG levels."

Well, Mr Kohli, that still doesn't let your chickens off the skewer.