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KFC Plans To Cut The Trans Fat

October 30, 2006

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Feeling the heat from health advocates, another fast food chain has promised to cut some of the fat from its food.

KFC Corp. said it will start cooking its fried chicken in soybean oil and stop using oils containing trans fatty acids, an artery-clogging contributor to heart disease.

The company announced that it has already made the switch at its restaurants in New York and Chicago. Other stores in the 5,500 store chain will follow.

The move follows Wendy's recent announcement that it has stopped using trans fat in its food preparation. It also follows a lawsuit filed by a doctor in Maryland, claiming the chain served consumers harmful food without informing them. The suit seeks $74,000 for each customer who wasn't warned about trans fats.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest had also sued KFC because of its use of of partially hydrogenated oil and what the group says can be "startlingly high" levels of trans fats in KFC meals.

Executive director Michael Jacobson has accused KFC of putting customers at risk "of a Kentucky Fried Coronary."

CSPI said it was immediately withdrawing its lawsuit, based on KFC's announcement. Though trans fat will remain in KFC pot pies and biscuits, the organization said that the chain seems serious about switching to healthier oils in those products also.

"What are McDonald's and Burger King waiting for now?" asked Jacobson. "If KFC, which deep-fries almost everything, can get the artificial trans fat out of its frying oil, anyone can. Colonel Sanders deserves a bucket full of praise."

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