Council visits shop accused of serving fly eggs in fried chicken

A photo of the fried chicken Latu and her family had ordered for lunch. Photo / Facebook

An Auckland City council inspector has paid a visit to The Great Tong Takeaways in Mangere East after the council received a complaint that some of the fried chicken served at the business had contained fly eggs.

The council visit came yesterday, about two days after the food was purchased at the shop, but upturned no evidence of maggots on the premises.

Auckland Council manager environmental health Mervyn Chetty said the investigation was ongoing.

"Our initial investigation of the premises found that the cleanliness and hygiene was satisfactory at the time of the inspection, and that the business has fly control measures in place.

"There was no evidence of maggots on the premises.

"We also determined that their procedure for cooking the fried chicken adequately minimises its exposure to contamination from flying insects."

South Auckland resident Reighleen Latu had told the Herald that on Monday her partner, Dan Mate, and his brother purchased the chicken from The Great Tong in Mangere East for a family lunch.

She said she was left "disgusted" by the fly eggs that she found on the chicken and that she had vomited soon after biting into the chicken.

A Great Tong spokesperson told the Herald yesterday that they were "well aware" of the allegation and would be investigating the matter further.

In the meantime, they had asked all The Great Tong stores to check their stock.