KFC secret recipe in new, safer vault

The fried chicken recipe was handwritten by founder Colonel Harland Sanders

KFC secret recipe in new, safer vault

The fried chicken recipe was handwritten by founder Colonel Harland Sanders

Colonel Sanders' handwritten recipe for fried chicken was back in its Kentu-cky home yesterday after five

months in hiding while KFC upgraded security around its top corporate secret.

The recipe was returned from an undisclosed location to KFC's headquarters in a lockbox handcuffed to the wrist of a security consultant.

KFC President Roger Eaton was visibly relieved when the door to a new electronic safe was shut with the single sheet of yellowing paper inside. "It was very nerve wracking," said Eaton. "I don't want to be the only president who's lost the recipe."

The recipe lays out a mix of 11 herbs and spices that coat the chain's Original Recipe chicken, including exact amounts for each ingredient. It is written in pencil and signed by Harland Sanders.

The iconic recipe is now protected by an array of high-tech gadgets, including motion detectors and cameras. Thick concrete blocks encapsulate the vault that is connected to a backup generator to keep the security system operating in times of power outages.

A security expert said the security measures he installed replaced an "antiquated" system. For years, the recipe was kept in a filing cabinet equipped with two combination locks in the vault. "The colonel could have used a pry bar to open it."u00a0

Just how valuable is the recipe?

Sanders developed the formula in 1940 at his restaurant in southeastern Kentucky and used it to launch the KFC chain in the early 1950s. Sanders died in 1980, but his likeness is still central to KFC's marketing.
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The recipe is such a tightly held secret that not even Eaton knows its full contents. Only two company executives at any time have access to the recipe. KFC won't release their names or titles, and it uses multiple suppliers who produce and blend the ingredients but know only a part of the entire contents.
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Thomas P Hustad, professor of marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, said the recipe "goes to the core of the identity of the brand". The recipe, along with the man who created it, conjure images for the chain that help set it apart in the minds of customers, he said.

"I would say that the heritage value is just as high for this secret recipe as the stories around the Coke formula," Hustad said. "I guess I'd put the two of those at the top of the pyramid."

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