[link to www.sfgate.com]
MCDONALD'S OIL CHANGE
Fast food giant to trim levels of dangerous trans fat in its fryers

Kim Severson, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 4, 2002
Printable Version
Email This Article
delicious del.icio.us
digg Digg
technorati Technorati
reddit Reddit
facebook Facebook slashdot Slashdot
fark Fark
newsvine Newsvine
google Google Bookmarks
(0)
Georgia (default)
Verdana
Times New Roman
Arial
Fry Transition. Associated Press Graphic McDonald's plans to begin using a new kind of soy-corn oi...

Ronald McDonald is messing with his famous fries again, this time in the name of better health.

The fast food giant that once fried its potatoes in beef tallow will start cooking french fries, chicken nuggets and fish fillets in a new kind of soy- corn oil with less trans fat and more polyunsaturated fat, the world's biggest food-service company announced Tuesday.

The new oil produces less of the type of cholesterol that can lead to strokes and heart attacks, and it also reduces the levels of dangerous trans fat by half.

McDonald's workers will start pouring the new oil into deep fryers next month, and by February 2003, it will be used at all of the 13,000 restaurants in the United States. Eventually, the rest of the 17,000 McDonald's in the world will have it.

Executives of McDonald's, which serves 46 million customers each day in 121 countries, said the move is simply a way to give consumers a wider range of healthier choices. The company worked with Cargill, its longtime oil supplier, to formulate the new trans fat-reduced vegetable oil.

Because Americans eat almost 60 pounds of frozen potatoes a year per person -- almost all of them fries -- and because McDonald's is America's top fry seller, the oil change is big news. But nutritionists and fans of the fry took it with, well, a grain of salt.

A MATTER OF TASTE

For people eating fries Tuesday at a San Francisco McDonald's, flavor mattered more than health.

"I'm not eating them because they're supposed to be good for me," said Virgie Atkins, a pregnant Oakland resident who said McDonald's fries are one of her most persistent prenatal cravings. "They say it will taste the same, but if it has a different taste, you know the company will hear about it."

McDonald's corporate officials, who in no way want the new fries to flop like New Coke did in 1985, say that 97 out of 100 people who tried the new fries and the traditional fries couldn't detect a difference.

For some of the nation's top dietary experts, the issue isn't taste but fat calories. They applaud the move, but say consumers shouldn't be fooled into thinking that eating fries is healthy. The new oil will change the proportion of fats, reducing trans fat by 48 percent and saturated fat by 16 percent, and almost doubling the more beneficial polyunsaturated fat. The actual amount of calories won't change, however.

And the move doesn't eliminate trans fat altogether, which is what leading government nutrition experts and medical researchers now recommend.

"This is a no-brainer. We've known for years that trans fats are bad," said Marion Nestle, head of New York University's nutrition department and author of "Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health."

"McDonald's gets lots of credit for doing what should have been done a long time ago, but supersize french fries will still have 610 calories, which is about a third of the calories an average woman needs in a day and about a quarter of what an average man needs," Nestle said. "And if you add in a cheeseburger and a shake, that takes care of (caloric needs for) the day. It's calories that count more than anything."

Trans fat is created when ordinary vegetable oil is processed into partially hydrogenated oil. The process keeps oil from turning rancid and it allows it to stay solid at room temperature, which makes it easy for fast-food workers to handle and store. It became prevalent in McDonald's fries in 1990, when the company switched from beef tallow to vegetable oil in an attempt to lower the amount of saturated fat in its food.

That was before trans fat was proved to be such a villain. Some of the nation's leading medical researchers, including many in the Bay Area, believe that the trans fat that marbles the modern American diet might be why kids are so fat, diabetes is at record levels, and some people develop cancer. They say trans fat is a big player in Syndrome X, a cluster of health problems characterized by a beer belly, high blood pressure and out-of-whack blood fats and sugars.

HIGHER LEVELS OF BAD CHOLESTEROL

The FDA estimates that Americans eat, on average, five grams of trans fat a day, compared with as much as 25 grams of saturated fat. Although that amount seems minuscule by comparison, several research studies have suggested that amount is already much more than the body can bear because it increases levels of harmful, or LDL, cholesterol and can clog the body's workings much like sand can mess with the mechanism of a clock.

The National Academy of Sciences issued a report in July that said absolutely no level of trans fat was safe. That study prompted the Food and Drug Administration to require food manufacturers to list trans fat amounts on food labels by next year.

Some health activists believe McDonald's made the move in the face of growing pressure to eliminate all trans fat. Others believe it is related to the nation's obesity epidemic and the movement to villainize the fast-food industry.

The announcement comes a month after a New York man sued McDonald's and three other fast-food chains, saying their food made him obese. Caesar Barber, 56, weighs 272 pounds, had heart attacks in 1996 and 1999, and has diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. He said he ate fast food for decades,

believing it was good for him until his doctor cautioned him otherwise.

Whatever the reason, the bottom line will be whether consumers believe that McDonald's fries are now healthier than they used to be.

Tony Dore of San Francisco, eating a breakfast burrito and a fried hash brown patty early Tuesday, said he didn't think the improved oil would make much difference.

"People aren't really conscious of what they eat when they come here," he said. But he conceded that the new oil might lull people into thinking fried fast food is healthy.

"It's like light cigarettes," Dore said. "People smoke more because they're light, even though they're still bad for you."
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ALMIGHTY GOLDEN ARCHES FRENCH FRY

More than the shakes or the cheeseburger, Ray Kroc loved his french fries.

"The french fry," the McDonald's founder wrote in his autobiography, "would become almost sacrosanct for me, its preparation a ritual to be followed religiously."

In the 1950s, when Kroc began his hamburger kingdom, that meant cutting fresh fries from Russet Burbank potatoes every day and frying them at just the right temperature and in just the right blend of about 7 percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow.

As the chain grew in the 1960s, Kroc turned to frozen shoestring fries, which saved labor costs, added to the profit margin and ensured that his fries tasted the same at every restaurant. As a result, McDonald's french fries have always been a favorite. Food icons James Beard and Julia Child both praised them.

But Kroc's way with fries affected more than just palates. In his book "Fast Food Nation," Eric Schlosser points out that Kroc had a profound effect on the nation's agriculture and the American diet, transforming french-fried potatoes into one of the first highly processed industrial commodities and the most popular fast-food menu item in America.

Today, McDonald's is the largest buyer of potatoes in the United States.

In 1990, McDonald's switched to vegetable oil as a way to improve the cholesterol-producing profile of its fries. To keep the taste consistent, they added beef flavoring but said the fries were vegetarian. That backfired. Vegetarian groups sued the company last year, and in May McDonald's apologized and paid $10 million to various vegetarian and nutrition organizations as well as Hindu and Sikh groups in addition to millions in legal fees.

The Oak Brook, Ill., company said it was not required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reveal the use of beef flavoring and that it didn't use the substance in fries sold at restaurants in India or predominantly Hindu countries, where the cow is sacred.
FRY TRANSITION

A redesigned cooking oil will help to reduce the number of harmful saturated fat and trans fatty acids in a small order of McDonald's fries.

Fat breakdown Old New

Calories 210.0 210.0

Calories from fat 90.0 90.0

Saturated 20.7 17.0

Transsaturated 30.0 16.0

Polyunsaturated 10.8 29.0

Monounsaturated 29.0 29.0

Caloric values are rounded.

Source: McDonald's

Associated Press Graphic

EC:

Chronicle staff writer Ray Delgado and Chronicle news services contributed to this report. / E-mail Kim Severson at [email protected].