a new beef with fries

Vegetarian Times, June, 2001 by Jordan Rothacker

McDonald's French fries, a guilty pleasure of many vegetarians, may not be as "safe" as we would like to believe. It appears that McDonald's has fallen short in the full disclosure department. As a result of the low-cholesterol craze back in 1990, the fast-food giant stopped cooking its fries in beef tallow (rendered beef fat) and replaced it with partially hydrogenated soybean and corn oils. The recipe makeover allowed vegetarians to finally taste what the rest of the world was so crazy about.

But you may want to think twice about your next trip through the golden arches. While not fried in beef fat, the fries do contain "natural flavors," which actually include animal products, because technically they are derived from natural sources.

In 1997 McDonald's released a statement to the Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) confirming that "the natural flavor used in [McDonald's] french fries is from an animal source." The VRG checked back in November 2000 and learned that no changes had been made.

For the past year and a half, the Vegetarian Legal Action Network (VLAN) has been petitioning the FDA to require food manufacturers to list the contents of all natural flavorings. VLAN encourages concerned consumers to sign a petition and lend their voice to influence the FDA.

To contact the VLAN, call (888) 463-6332 or visit its web site at www.enviroweb.org/vlan.>

COPYRIGHT 2001 Vegetarian Times, Inc. All rights reserved.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning