Trans Fats No Longer Finger-Lickin' Good

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Trans Fats No Longer Finger-Lickin' Good

KFC To Phase It Out In Chicken, Other Items, But Unsure About Its

Biscuits

 

NEW YORK, Oct. 30,

2006http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/30/health/main2136018.shtm

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KFC president Gregg Dedrick speaks at a press conference in New

York, Oct. 30, 2006. (AP)

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" It's huge. It's going to be the trendsetter for the entire country. "

 

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Suzanne Vieira, Johnson & Wales University

 

 

(CBS/AP) KFC said Monday it is phasing out trans fats in cooking its

Original Recipe and Extra Crispy fried chicken, Potato Wedges and

other menu items, but has not found a good alternative yet for its

biscuits.

 

Health experts say trans fats raise levels of artery-clogging

cholesterol and contribute to heart disease.

 

The restaurant chain said it will start using zero trans fat soybean

oil system-wide in the United States with the rollout expected to be

completed by April 2007. KFC said many of its approximately 5,500

restaurants already have switched.

 

KFC President Gregg Dedrick said there would be no change in the

taste of the chicken and other food items.

 

" There is no compromise, " he said at a Manhattan news

conference. " Nothing is more important to us than the quality of our

food and preserving the terrific taste of our product. "

 

Crispy Strips, Wings, Boneless Wings, Buffalo and Crispy Snacker

Sandwiches, Popcorn Chicken and Twisters also will be made with the

zero transfat cooking oil.

 

" We've been working for over two years, with extensive research,

development, and testing, to not compromise at all in the taste of

our world-famous chicken, and yet also have a zero trans fat

solution, " Dedrick told CBS Radio News.

 

But Dedrick said some products including biscuits will still be made

with trans fat while KFC keeps looking for alternatives.

 

" We've already begun the conversion process to our new cooking oil,

and we will take up to six months, by the end of April, to have it

in all 5500 restaurants across the United States, " he said.

 

The announcement came just ahead of a New York City Board of Health

public hearing on a plan to make New York the first U.S. city to ban

restaurants from serving food containing artificial trans fats.

 

Denmark is the only country to have sharply limited trans fats,

passing a law in 2003 that came into effect in 2004, making it

illegal for any food to contain more than 2 percent of trans fat.

 

A Danish study of fast food restaurants in dozens of countries in

2004 and 2005 found remarkably wide variations in trans fat content

from country to country, from city to city within the same nation,

and from restaurant to restaurant in the same city.

 

At KFCs in Poland and Hungary, a large hot wings-and-fries order had

19 grams of trans fats or more, versus 5.5 grams for wings and fried

potato wedges in New York, the study found. But in Germany, Russia,

Denmark and Aberdeen, Scotland, the same meal had less than a gram.

 

The change at KFC applies only to U.S. restaurants for now, Dedrick

said.

 

Artificial trans fat is so common that the average American eats 4.7

pounds of it a year, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

 

The switch was applauded by the Center for Science in the Public

Interest, which sued the Louisville, Kentucky-based KFC in June over

the trans fat content of its chicken.

 

In advance of the news conference, CSPI's Michael Jacobson told CBS

Radio News his group would withdraw from the lawsuit if KFC

announced it was getting rid of trans fat.

 

KFC is not the only business preparing for a trans-fat-free future.

 

Wendy's International Inc., the burger restaurant chain company, has

already switched to a zero-trans fat oil. Fast-food leader

McDonald's Corp. had announced that it intended to do so as well in

2003, but has yet to follow through.

 

If New York City approves banning food with artificial trans fats,

it would only affect city restaurants, not grocery stores. But

experts said the city's foodservice industry is so large, any change

in its rules is likely to have a ripple effect nationwide.

 

" It's huge. It's going to be the trendsetter for the entire

country, " said Suzanne Vieira, director of the culinary nutrition

program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., where

students are experimenting with substitute oils and shortenings.

 

New York's thousands of independently owned restaurants are

beginning to look for ways to make changes too — not all happily.

 

Richard Lipsky, a spokesman for the Neighborhood Retail Alliance,

said many eatery owners rely on ingredients prepared elsewhere, and

are not always aware whether the foods they sell contain trans fats.

 

Invented in the early 1900s, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil

was initially believed to be a healthy substitute for natural fats

like butter or lard. It was also cheaper, performed better under

high heat and had a longer shelf life.

 

Today, the oil is used as a shortening in baked goods like cookies,

crackers and doughnuts, as well as in deep frying.

 

" Trans fats raise the bad cholesterol and they lower the good

cholesterol. It's the only fat that does that, " Jacobson said. " In

addition, it seems to affect the walls of our arteries, making them

more prone to heart disease. "

 

Researchers at Harvard's School of Public Health estimated that

trans fats contribute to 30,000 U.S. deaths a year.

 

" This is something we'd like to dismiss from our food supply, " said

Dr. Robert H. Eckel, immediate past president of the American Heart

Association.

 

Ironically, many big fast food companies only became dependent on

hydrogenated oil a decade and a half ago when they were pressured by

health groups to do something about saturated fat.

 

McDonald's emptied its french fryers of beef tallow in 1990 and

filled them with what was then thought to be " heart healthy "

partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

 

" They did so in all innocence, trying to do the right thing, " said

Jacobson. " Everybody thought it was safe. We thought it was safe. "

 

Some restaurants were still completing the changeover when the first

major study appeared indicating that the hydrogenated oils were just

as bad for you, if not worse.

 

KFC is part of Yum Brands Inc., which also owns the Taco Bell and

Pizza Hut chains.

 

 

©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. . This material may

not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The

Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

 

 

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Comments [ + Post Your Own ]

 

Trans fats have been attributed to the almost blindnessone of one of

Australians retired weather readers .. Evidently the transfats have

caused damage to behind his eyes..

Posted by Gaye5 at 06:08 PM : Oct 30, 2006

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we too are also against trans fats....they are horrible and should

not be consumed

 

www.theweeklydonut.org

Posted by doctordonut at 01:42 PM : Oct 30, 2006

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This is a very good start for the Fast food industry. This stuff

actually turns your good Cholesterol (HDL) into artery clogging

cholesterol (LDL). Not good for people like me that have naturally

low HDL.

 

Now they need to take the trans-fats out of the breading used to

coat the chicken and potatos.

Posted by mas369 at 12:43 PM : Oct 30, 2006

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meboard-let's not forget about teddy kennedy,ok? He could loose a

few pounds don't you think?

 

 

Posted by janem4 at 12:03 PM : Oct 30, 2006

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That's a good step towards health (and their bottom line) from KFC.

Maybe now they should stop torturing the chickens before they

slaughter them. That may make the company HUMANE as well health

conscious.

Posted by FrereJacques at 10:23 AM : Oct 30, 2006

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That's a good step towards health (and their bottom line) from KFC.

Maybe now they should stop torturing the chickens before they

slaughter them. That may make the company HUMANE as well health

conscious.

Posted by FrereJacques at 10:23 AM : Oct 30, 2006

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I'm a-mis as to how this got into the political section? Unless this

will somehow help Denny Hastart's weight problem? If he gets thrown

out as Speaker, maybe he'll have more time for the gym? Just another

reason to vote Democrat on Nov 7--give Denny more gym time!

Posted by meboard at 09:59 AM : Oct 30, 2006

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All I can say is that it's LONG overdue.

Posted by Boston1954 at 07:56 AM : Oct 30, 2006

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