KFC to eliminate trans-fats from food

Oct 31 2006

American fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) says it will stop using trans-fatty acids for most of its products from next April.

The announcement from KFC comes as New York authorities are considering imposing a ban on the use of trans-fats in the city's 20,000 restaurants.

KFC has 5,500 fried-chicken restaurants across the States and 786 restaurants in Canada.

Canadian restaurants will switch to a Canadian-made canola oil by early next year; KFC restaurants in many other countries, including China, already use a more healthy oil.

In recent years there has been mounting concern about premature deaths and rising obesity in the US, and trans-fat has become the number one target for campaigners.

Trans-fats are partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which turn oily foods into semi-solid foods and are used to extend the shelf life of products.

They have no nutritional benefit and are used in pastries, cakes, margarine and some fast foods and are known to raise the levels of the low-density lipoprotein -- the so-called 'bad' cholesterol.

According to experts fast food is bad, but trans-fat is worse as it increases the damaging cholesterol content of a meal, clogging up arteries and increasing the risk of a heart attack.

As 80% of the items on a Kentucky Fried Chicken menu have it, changing to a cleaner oil will have a significant impact.

KFC outlets have been experimenting with alternative cooking oils in several hundred restaurants in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta and hometown, Louisville, Kentucky, and the company says its customers have not been able to spot the difference.

KFC has settled for a low linolenic soybean oil, a zero trans-fat cooking oil, to replace partially hydrogenated soybean oil in its U.S. restaurants.

KFC's decision will apply to its outlets all over America, and follows in the footsteps of the Wendy's burger chain which has already switched to a more healthy oil.

The McDonalds chain continues to promise to reduce trans-fats in its products but in four years it has yet to find an alternative oil which it is satisfied with.