Campaigners sue KFC over 'trans fats'
Fast food chain KFC is being sued in the United States in an attempt to stop it cooking its fried chicken in partially hydrogenated oil containing trans fatty acids.
The Centre for Science in the Public Interest consumer group claims the firm knows healthier cooking products are available but continues to use trans fats, which have been linked to raised cholesterol and a subsequent increased risk of heart disease.
“KFC knows this, yet it recklessly puts its customers at risk of a Kentucky Fried Coronary,” the centre’s executive director, Michael Jacobsen, said.
The group and Dr Arthur Hoyte, a retired physician from Maryland, want a judge to order KFC to use other types of oils or make sure customers know about trans fat content immediately before they buy food.
KFC spokeswoman Laurie Schalow branded the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the company would fight it in court.
She added that KFC was looking at using other types of oil, but said it was committed to maintaining its “unique taste and flavour“.
The company had provided nutrition and fat information to consumers online and in restaurants for a very long time, she said.
Dr Hoyte said he was suing “for my son and others’ kids, so they may have a healthier, happier, trans-fat-free future“.
“If I had known that KFC uses an unnatural frying oil, and that their food was so high in trans fat, I would have reconsidered my choices,” he said.
He and the consumer group are seeking class-action status for their claim and want a judge to let Dr Hoyte represent anyone who ate at a KFC in the Washington DC area in 2004 and 2005.
They are seeking a variety of economic damages in the filing against KFC’s parent company, Yum Brands.
