Victory: Finally, KFC opts for the good oil
By Kelly Burke
June 16, 2009
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
The nation’s most recalcitrant fast food chain has capitulated.
Yum! Restaurants, makers of KFC, will ditch its artery- clogging palm oil for a healthier alternative, two years after the company stared down the Federal Government and refused to change its ways.
The backdown coincides with the announcement today that a range of grilled chicken options will be added to the Australian menu, following a successful launch in the US early last year.
When the Herald approached Yum! last March and asked if Kentucky Grilled Chicken was on its way to Australia, the company denied it had any plans to depart from its usual fried fare.
KFC was one of the last few major fast foods chains to resist the move away from palm oil for frying.
The oil, although low in trans fat (1 per cent or less) is 52 per cent saturated fat, making it a major contributor to cardiovascular disease, according to the World Health Organisation.
Production of the oil has been responsible for the illegal clearing of thousands of hectares of rainforest in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for palm plantations.
In 2006, McDonald’s adopted a canola- sunflower blend, also low in trans fats but with only 12 per cent saturated fat content.
The following March, the then assistant health minister, Christopher Pyne, called a meeting of fast food industry leaders, giving them a six- month deadline to draw up plans to phase out ingredients exceptionally high in saturated fats such as palm oil.
Sources at the meeting said Yum! Restaurants representatives were noticeable in their reticence to support the otherwise unanimous plan, and the company subsequently told the Herald that KFC Australia had been using palm oil “for many years” and had no intention of converting to a healthier cooking oil.
Along with the switch to a canola- sunflower blend for cooking, KFC has now also made a commitment to reduce the salt content in its food across the board.
The company will reportedly spent $35 million introducing the menu changes, including a $10 million campaign to market the new grilled chicken products.
Kelly Burke is the Herald’s Consumer Affairs Reporter
July 30th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
MR. KFC, are you kidding me? $35 million to introduce a menu and a $10 million campaign to market the new grilled chicken products? Honey, what turnip truck did you fall off of? Every successful business knows that word of mouth is your best advertiser. Example, my husband and I tried your grilled chicken and we were both surprised when we agreed the grilled chicken was better than the fried. A week later, he took a box of your grilled chicken to a potluck dinner. Everyone loved it! Some said, “Hey, I really like this. I ‘m glad you brought some because I wasn’t going to spend my money just to find out that I didn’t like it.’
So please, let an old Southern gal, born with a frying skillet in one hand and a 5 pound can of Mrs. Tucker’ s lard in the other tell you how to do this. You take $1 million dollars, more or less, worth of chicken wings, grill them up and put one wing, free of charge, in every order of your greasy fried chicken. There you go, the menu has been introduced. After they finish smacking their lips and licking their fingers, their mouths will start talking. So there is your publicity campaign.
You are welcome Mr. KFC, I am glad I could be of service. I am just tickled pink as a new born piglet that you will be saving $44 million dollars even if we both know your profits will double if not triple this amount in profits in a year or two.
Oh by the way, here is my bill for my experience and knowledge of common sense. Please make your check out for $44 million payable to Lone Dröscher Nielsen, Manager of Nyaru Menteng. Please state that she will have full access with no restrictions on how to spend this money on her projects. Please send in care of Richard Zimmerman, Director of Orangutan Outreach.
I will take the liberty to assure you that Richard Zimmerman will procure international publicity for your generous gift. If you are going to spend that money anyway, why not spend it to build KFC’s reputation for saving the rainforest and the wildlife of Borneo and Sumatra? Then KFC will once again be remembered for that old Cornel everyone loved. Isn’t that better than being remembered as that chicken place that used palm oil made by killing BABY ORANGUTANS?
If I may please give a little more Southern advice, fire the idiot who came up with that $45 million figure. How much is he going to line his pockets with?
Thank you for your support and generosity,
Ms Southern Made
[Ok my redape brothers and sisters, someone needs to deliver this to the proper CEO and make it ASP!!! The BABIES are hungry and they need new trees to make their nest in]