Chicken sales 'normal'

BATAM: After slow business last week due to the bird flu scare, chicken sales at the popular American fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Batam have returned to normal.

Dini Wahyuni, a KFC manager, said on Saturday that the KFC's sales figures dropped by nearly 5 percent as people were gripped by fear on whether the KFC products were free of bird flu.

But, as the news of the outbreak of the bird flu disease died down, mostly due to the belief that well-cooked chicken is harmless, the sales recovered, she said.

She reiterated that people should not fear the possibility that they would be infected by the virus after eating cooked chicken.

According to most scientists, chicken meat is safe to eat if it is cooked at or above a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius (176 Fahrenheit). -- Antara