With a growing number of chains electing to change their frying oils to jettison trans fats, the impression among health-conscious consumers might be that heart-threatening dietary risks are becoming a thing of the past when they dine out.
However, most chains still are far from eliminating cholesterol-spiking hydrogenated fats from their menus, even though nutrition watchdogs who once complained loudly about that fact have ratcheted down their rhetoric.
Meanwhile, experts say that oil suppliers could be increasingly hard-pressed to keep pace with the foodservice industry’s growing demand for alternatives, especially if legal mandates to ban trans fats escalate.
In addition to deep-fried items, many other foods contain artificial trans fats, a type of fat that the Harvard University School of Public Health has blamed for causing at least 50,000 deaths from heart disease annually. Sweet and savory baked goods and hash-brown potatoes lead the list of such foods that may contain artificial trans fats.
KFC, for example, stopped frying chicken and potato wedges in partially hydrogenated oil systemwide in April, but the chain so far has not said when tests of trans-fat-free oils for its biscuits, pot pies, macaroni and cheese, and certain desserts might lead to recipe revamps.
Nonetheless, the frying-oil change by the chain’s 5,500 U.S. outlets garnered a rare commendation from Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest—even though the high level of trans fats in KFC’s pot pies and biscuits was cited by the CSPI last year in a lawsuit against KFC. The suit has since been dropped.
But some chains now are pledging to rid their entire menus, not just their fried foods, of trans fats.
Among the latest quick-service companies to reveal plans to go trans-fat-free is CKE Restaurants Inc., owner of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s brands, which intends to adopt a 100-percent canola cooking oil by next January.
“We’re actively developing zero-trans-fat versions of every menu item and expect to have that portion of the transition completed in the next six to 12 months,” CKE spokeswoman Anne Hallock said.
CKE’s announcement closely followed that of Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, which said its biscuits now contain no trans fats. The chain’s fries also underwent a trans-fat reduction but still have 1 gram of trans fat per serving. Popeyes continues to test zero-trans-fat shortening for other core products, such as its Cajun Wings, said Kirk Waisner, vice president of menu and product development.
The CSPI, meanwhile, has continued to sue large chains that have not yet shed trans fats. Last month it asked a District of Columbia Superior Court judge to order Burger King to either stop using oils containing trans fats or to post prominent warning notices on its menu boards.
Burger King refuted the basis of the lawsuit, saying it already had planned to roll out a trans-fat-free frying oil either later this year or in 2008, depending on the availability of adequate supplies.
Nutrition information on Burger King’s website, dated April, discloses the grams of trans fat in a range of items, such as a large order of hash browns, 13; king-size French fries, 7; and a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich on a biscuit, 6.
The federal standard for claiming zero trans-fat content on product labeling is 0.5 grams or less per serving, and the Bush administration has urged Americans to reduce their trans-fat intake as much as possible.
McDonald’s, whose newly adopted trans-fat-free oil now is being used in at least 3,500 of its 13,100 domestic restaurants, intends to complete the rollout sometime within the next year, and aims to extend the purge to all other products.
“Our efforts to reduce or eliminate trans fatty acids is across our menu, not just our fries and other deep-fried items,” said spokesman Bill Whitman.
However, McDonald’s said its timing of a chainwide rollout will depend on the ability of growers and processors it has under contract to process sufficient quantities of oils from special seed crops being grown in North America and South America.
Currently, the chain’s menu items contain varying quantities of trans fats, such as McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast with a large biscuit, syrup and two pats of margarine, 13 grams, and fries, ranging by size of order, from 3.5 to 8 grams.
Wendy’s was the first major quick-service chain to complete a switch to a nonhydrogenated cooking oil for all fried items last August. The chain began using a corn-soy blend, albeit one that McDonald’s later said it had tested and rejected. Wendy’s medium and large fries still contain 1 gram of trans fats, but the chain is working with its suppliers to reduce that amount by changing the par-frying process at processing plants, spokesman Bob Bertini indicated.
The pace of the race to find trans-fat-free oils is expected to pick up industrywide as consumer awareness about the related health dangers grows. Half of quick-service restaurant users in one survey said they were more concerned about the harmful effects of trans fats in restaurant food than they were a year ago, according to a Sandelman & Associates study titled “Impact of Trans Fats 2007.”
The consulting and research firm also indicated that about 61 percent of quick-service customers believe that restaurants do not provide enough information about the trans-fat content of their foods and that they do not offer enough trans-fat-free items. However, only one-third of the survey respondents said that laws should be passed to ban trans fats from restaurant food.
Municipalities ranging from well-to-do suburbs Brookline, Mass., Montgomery County, Md., and Albany County, N.Y., to the cities of New York and Philadelphia have passed trans-fat bans. Similar bans are pending in scattered municipalities around the country and also as statewide proposals in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina and Tennessee.
As such bans proliferate, so do industry concerns about adequate supplies of alternative oils.
“In talking to seed producers and oil manufacturers, there is enough for New York and Philadelphia, but if every place would enact a ban, supply would be a big challenge,” said Sheila Cohn Weiss, the National Restaurant Association’s director of nutrition policy.
Domestic supplies of what is said to be one of the most desirable oils, low-linolenic soybean oil, no longer can meet the growing demand, said Walter Fehr, an agriculture professor at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The United States currently is the only country whose farmers are growing that type of soybean, he said.
Robert Reeves, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils, said: “There are a lot of alternatives available. It appears there are enough right now, but you can’t predict the future.”
Reeves foresees potential problems from legal prohibitions on trans fats, especially if regulations are inconsistent from place to place.
“These are political ways to satisfy technical problems,” he said. “That in itself is an issue.”
