Monday, 2 July 2007

Is McDonalds committed to healthy food?


The Trans-fatty acid story of McDonald´s [1]

It is amazing that McDonalds proudly announces how unhealthy its products were,still are and will remain.
Using 30% trans fatty acid oil until 1998, gradualy reducing to 15% and loudly announcing to reduce this to 2% in mid 2008 following pressure from media and facing FDA mandatory labelling
demonstrates how little the company is really devoted to healthyness of their products.
ZERO-Trans oils are produced when the steaming temperature during the raffination process is reduced. This increases the time the oil has to stay in the system, resulting in a small increase of price.
McDonald´s should use the solution of Denmark and reduce the Trans to zero. This would be a real commitment to the health of their customers.

The environmental story of McDonald´s [1]
The fast food chain gloats with the intention to transform used frying oil in biodiesel. Used frying oil is already being delivered to the chemical industry which produces technical fatty acids, and more recently it is partially being converted in biodiesel. That is the way to get rid of waste oil food business is using since frying began. What is new is the dimension of environmental unfriendly transportation system necessary to avoid MacDonald´s and colleagues from collapse.

[1] ttx: The campaign against trans fats in food
http://www.tfx.org.uk/page236.html