Goodbye trans-fat fries
MCD'S | Cooked in new oil, but 'same great taste,' CEO says
McDonald's Corp. said the fries served at all of its U.S. and Canadian stores are now free of trans fats.
The company swapped out the vegetable oil it was using for a canola-based oil a few months ago to cook fries and other deep-fried items, including chicken products and hash browns, CEO Jim Skinner told shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Oak Brook on Thursday. The company is still working on getting the trans fat out of its cookies and pies by the end of this year.
The world's largest restaurant company has lagged other restaurant operators in switching over to a zero-trans-fat cooking oil out of worries it would compromise the taste of its trademark fries. It had said it didn't want to compromise the taste of its signature fries.
"While we don't plan to advertise these changes, we wanted you to be the first to know that we have followed through on our commitment while keeping the same great taste that our customers expect from McDonald's,'' Skinner said.
The restaurant industry is under increasing pressure from lawmakers to cut the fat.
"Government regulations definitely stimulated them. I don't think a lot of people necessarily would have done them on their own," sad Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago-based restaurant consultancy and research firm. "I think the industry mobilized very quickly based on potential legislation and regulation; the fact that there were bans in New York and other cities. The chains were fearful that additional bans were likely."
About 28 percent of 400 restaurants the company surveyed reported making oil changes in the last two years, according to a report Goldin presented during a Saturday workshop at the 2008 National Restaurant Association trade show in Chicago.
McDonald's won't raise prices on hamburgers and french fries as fast as its expenses increase, as corn and energy costs soar to records. ''Costs are rising faster than we've seen in more than a dozen years,'' Chief Operating Officer Ralph Alvarez told reporters after the shareholders meeting. ''One of our goals is to stay below the food-away-from-home inflation index'' that's increasing about 4 percent a year.
Surging costs for wheat, coffee and fuel have forced McDonald's, Burger King Holdings Inc. and other restaurant companies to raise some prices.
Contributing: AP, Bloomberg News