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Church's Chicken criticized for use of transfat

September 12, 2013

The Center for Science in the Public Interest took aim at Long John Silver's earlier this summer for its Big Catch meal, which was found to contain transfat. The chain has since committed to transitioning all of its restaurants to a transfat-free environment.

Now, however, the CSPI has another QSR target — Church's Chicken.

Earlier this week, the CSPI penned a letter to Church's CEO Jim Hyatt that reads, in part:

"Long after responsible restaurant companies, including KFC, McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, and others, reformulated their products without partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, Church's franchisees (who own a majority of Church's restaurants) continueto market products containing that ingredient. Partially hydrogenated oil is a problem because it is the source of artificial transfat, a potent cause of heart disease.

"The presence of trans fat in your products persists even though a representative of your company told CSPI in May 2007 that it would switch to transfree ingredients by the end of 2007 or early 2008.

"Church's franchisees market chicken, fish, potatoes, and other foods that are made with partially hydrogenated oil. As a consequence, meals have as much as 17 grams of trans fat, with a boneless wings dinner having 13 grams ... Because transfat promotes heart disease, the American Heart Association recommends that people consume no more than 2grams per day (including naturally occurring transfat).

"In light of the foregoing, CSPI urges Cajun Operating Company to protect its customers' wellbeing by switching to healthier oils for all of your products in all of your restaurants."

CSPI's Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson added that, although fried chicken will never be considered a "health food," to fry it in partially hydrogenated oil "basically weaponizes it." He said Church's is standing "almost alone" in the restaurant world, while its competitors have eliminated artificial transfat.

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