Fast food restaurant chain KFC has apologised after a customer found a piece of GREEN chicken in a takeaway meal.

Ellie Mallinson was sharing a £17.99 meal with boyfriend Ben Stegan-Jones when, after taking a bite, she noticed that a piece of the meat had a green tinge.

She described the sight as stomach churning.

“I had eaten half of this piece of chicken when I looked down and saw it was green,” she said.

Ellie Mallinson and Ben Stegan-Jones were disgusted to find green chicken in their KFC takeaway

“I was disgusted and told my boyfriend who said: ‘Oh my god – what is that?’

“It wasn’t pleasant and I felt sick all afternoon because of the sight of it.”

Ellie, 20, who lives in Brighouse, bought the meal from the KFC restaurant on Leeds Road, Huddersfield, on Monday afternoon.

Their meal came with 12 pieces of boneless chicken, a large portion of popcorn chicken, four portions of fries and four sides.

After she emailed KFC to complain, the company said it would investigate.

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In the email, KFC said: “Really sorry to hear about this!

“At KFC we set rigorous standards and controls for food hygiene.

“Therefore we shall be taking the matter very seriously and will carry out a full investigation.”

A KFC spokesman told the Examiner: “We’ve looked into this and whilst it’s clearly not nice to see, it’s completely harmless and occasionally comes as a result of dealing with fresh chicken.

“That said, we’re sorry for Ellie’s experience and have offered her a free meal on us the next time she visits.

KFC, Leeds Road, Huddersfield.

“We’re also inviting Ellie into our kitchen so she can experience first-hand how we prepare our chicken.”

The Examiner has asked KFC to comment on whether a condition called Green Muscle Disease, also known as deep pectoral myopathy, was the most likely cause of the green chicken.

Green chicken meat is usually due to Green Muscle Disease which is caused when poultry excessively flap their wings following a period of inactivity, according to industry experts.

Normally green chicken is detected during cutting and de-boning and is not linked to any food safety concerns.

According to a 2014 article on The Poultry Site website, Green Muscle Disease is becoming more common in “meat-type broiler chickens selected for high breast meat yield.”

A KFC spokesman said it couldn’t be certain what had caused Ellie’s chicken to be green.

“With only the photo to go by and without testing the chicken we can’t be sure of the cause,” he said.