A nutrition advocacy group sued KFC yesterday in an attempt to stop the fast-food chain from using partially hydrogenated oils, which contain unhealthful trans fats, in its fried chicken.
MATT YORK / Associated Press
KFC has been sued in an effort to block it from using partially hydrogenated oil in cooking.
|
The plaintiff, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which frequently criticizes the food industry and the government, seeks to have the District of Columbia Superior Court either ban use of the oils in KFC's cooking or to force the company to post signs telling customers that its food contains trans fat and can cause heart disease.
Any decision against KFC would be binding only in Washington, D.C., where the science group has its headquarters. But the group hopes such a ruling would cause the chain to make changes nationwide.
This is the second time a fast-food chain has faced a lawsuit over trans fats. McDonald's agreed to pay $8.5 million last year after a California lawyer brought a suit that accused the company of reneging on a promise to reduce trans-fat levels.
In response to the latest suit, KFC issued a statement calling it frivolous and “completely without merit.” The statement said that the company took health issues seriously and that its products were safe.
“We provide a variety of menu choices,” the chain said, “and provide nutrition information, including trans-fat values, on our Web site and in our restaurants so consumers can make informed choices before they purchase our products. We have been reviewing alternative oil options, but there are a number of factors to consider including maintaining KFC's unique taste and flavor of Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe.”
About 80 percent of trans fats in the American diet come from partially hydrogenated oil. Trans fats became a part of fast-food meals in the 1980s, after consumer groups demanded that the chains stop frying in beef tallow and palm oils because those products are highly saturated. The hazards of trans fats were not widely realized until years later.
Now they are considered more harmful than saturated fat because they both lower the “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoproteins) and raise the “bad” (low-density lipoproteins), while saturated fat just raises the bad cholesterol.
But despite warnings that partially hydrogenated oils are the most likely to clog arteries, many fast-food restaurants say they have had a hard time finding more healthful oils that can withstand high temperatures and still make food crisp and flavorful.
The science group's suit comes two years after it petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require that restaurants selling food that contains trans fats post signs alerting customers. The agency has not responded, so the group has turned to the courts, said Michael F. Jacobson, its executive director.
KFC has more than 5,400 restaurants in the United States and more than 8,200 overseas. It is a division of Yum! Brands Inc., which also owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W.
It was chosen for this suit, Jacobson said, because it is the second-largest fast-food chain in the world, after McDonald's, and because its meals have far more trans fats than those at burger chains. A three-piece Extra Crispy combo chicken dinner, with biscuit and potato wedge, contains 15 grams of trans fats.
Federal dietary guidelines issued last year recommended that people consume less than 1 percent of their calories from trans fats, or less than 2 grams a day, though the Institute of Medicine, one of the National Academies, says the only safe level of trans fats is zero.
While many fast-food restaurants continue using partially hydrogenated oil, Wendy's, the third-largest fast-food chain, began to remove it a year ago. In the 350 restaurants where the company has already done so, consumers have not noticed and there has been no drop in sales, said Wendy's spokesman Denny Lynch.
McDonald's, which said four years ago that it would stop using partially hydrogenated oil in its french fries, has yet to make the change in the United States, though it has done so in Australia, Denmark and Israel.
