A FERMANAGH man feared he was going to “choke to death” after a piece of plastic that was in a meal he bought at KFC got stuck in his throat and his teenager daughter had to “thump it out.”
Gordon Elliott has spoken of his shock after discovering the item in this three piece box after visiting the fast food restaurant in Enniskillen as a tea time treat for his children.
The 49 year old brought the food home and shared it with Naomi (18) and Sophie (13) but as he began to eat one of the pieces of chicken he “started to choke on it.” 
“I had to gag it up and only the wee cuttie Sophie turned around and hit me a thump to get it moved I don’t know what would have happened. It was a scary experience. 
“I spat it out into my hand and found an inch by an inch piece of plastic in it. The coating of the chicken was cooked onto both sides of the plastic. I felt sick,” he told The Impartial Reporter.
“If it had been a hair it wouldn’t have been as bad but to find something that could have killed you, that could have blocked my windpipe, that is serious,” he said. 
Mr. Elliott said he is thankful that his children hadn’t attempted to eat the piece of chicken before him.
“It could have been one of the children and that’s what is annoying me more about it,” he said. 
After returning to the restaurant on the Wellington Road and complaining following the incident on January 25, Mr. Elliott said he was offered “the price of the meal” (£4.99) back when he raised the issue.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was also told to complain by e-mail, that they didn’t phone head office to pass on complaints, then I received an e-mail back to say they would contact me about it. Over a week later and nobody has been in touch with me,” he told this newspaper, last Friday.

Impartial Reporter:
A short time later The Impartial Reporter contacted KFC and in a statement issued on Monday a spokesman for the company said “the quality and safety of our food is our top priority so we’re disappointed by what’s happened here.”
“We’re providing Gordon with a prepaid envelope to return the food, so we can investigate exactly where this has come from. It looks similar to the stickers we use to label our bags of chicken, and a recent EHO visit to the restaurant agrees with this view.
“That said, it shouldn’t have been in Gordon’s meal, so we’ve completed full retraining with the restaurant management team to ensure our high standards are met at all times,” said the spokesman. 
Mr. Elliott took a number of photographs following the incident and reported it to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council with a spokesman telling this newspaper: “The Environmental Health Service is aware of a complaint of plastic in a KFC meal.”
“The matter is currently under investigation and the Environmental Health Service will inform the complainant of the outcome in due course,” he said.