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To: H James Morris who wrote (124511)5/3/2001 7:44:43 PM
From: craig crawford  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 164684
 
Ahh...so this explains why McDonald's fries taste better!

Thursday May 3 7:44 AM ET
Vegetarian Sues McDonalds Over Meaty
Fries


SEATTLE (Reuters) - A vegetarian lawyer is claiming millions of dollars in damages from McDonald's
Corp., accusing the fast food company in a lawsuit of ``secretly'' lacing its french fries with beef fat.

Citing an e-mail in which the Oak Brook, Illinois company discloses its suppliers use tiny amounts of
beef flavoring, the suit charges McDonald's with fraudulent claims for saying its fries have been cooked
in pure vegetable oil.

``We will seek injunctive relief to stop this practice ... and we are seeking damages, including punitive
damages, that will easily be in the hundreds of millions of dollars,'' said Harish Bharti, who filed the
class action suit in King County Superior Court on Tuesday.

A McDonald's spokesman said the restaurant chain had never claimed to offer vegetarian food and
that it freely provides ingredient information to anyone who requests it.

Stressing all of its food products are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news -
web sites), spokesman Walt Riker said McDonald's fries contain ``minuscule'' amounts of beef
products, not the beef fat alleged by the lawsuit.

``We are very open,'' Riker said. ``We have probably 25 million people a day come to our restaurants
in the United States. I don't think anybody is coming in thinking that we are marketing vegetarian
items.''

Bharti, an Indian native who avoids meat in adherence to his Hindu religion, said he filed the suit on
behalf of the million or so Hindus in the United States and 15 million vegetarians who may have
unknowingly eaten meat products.

``McDonald's didn't have any right to deceive people this way,'' Bharti said.

In some overseas markets, including parts of Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia, McDonald's
does offer fries with no meat or pork content in order to conform to Islamic halal standards, Riker said.