KFC says fly eggs a customer found beneath the skin on a drumstick can't have originated at the store she bought it from.
Cassandra Blackburn purchased the meal from KFC at The Base, north Hamilton, on Thursday.
In a Facebook post, she said she made the icky discovery after peeling off the skin of one of drumsticks. But after being contacted by NZME, she deleted the post saying she didn't mean for it to "blow up like this".
KFC said it was investigating the complaint. Despite photos showing the eggs on the chicken meat, beneath the skin, spokesperson Amy McKenzie told NZME it was unlikely to have left the store like that.
"Research has shown that food that is warmer than 40degC is repellent to flies and potentially fatal to their eggs and maggots."
KFC stores its cooked chicken at 60degC minimum, she said, and the store was checked for pests that morning, with nothing found.
In 2012, a Botany Downs KFC served up chicken infested with maggots. The store's manager said it must have been contaminated in the two hours between the meal's purchase and the family sitting down to dinner.
Newshub.
