By John Schmeltzer
McClatchy Newspapers

MCT — While Wendy's, Taco Bell and KFC have announced a switch to new cooking oils free of heart-clogging trans fats, McDonald's Corp. stood by.

Until now.

After testing 18 varieties of oil in more than 50 blends during the last seven years, McDonald's told the Chicago Tribune last week that it finally struck gold. It found a suitable trans fat-free oil that won't change the taste or texture of its top-selling menu item: french fries.

Already, McDonald's says it is supplying about 1,200 of its American restaurants with the new oil after starting to secretly test it last summer.

By early 2008 in the United States, the golden arches plans to be cooking all its fries, as well as chicken nuggets and other fried items, in the vegetable oil blend that doesn't have the same unhealthy effects as trans fat.

McDonald's decision to jettison trans fats represents a late but significant move. As obesity rates have risen, the fast-food industry has come under pressure from health and nutrition advocates, consumers and governments to change its menu offerings. McDonald's, being the largest and best-known purveyor of burgers and fries, has taken the most heat.

After an embarrassing retreat from a 2002 announcement that it would soon eliminate trans fats from menu items, McDonald's used the time in a methodical and deliberate search for a new oil. The Oak Brook, Ill.-based hamburger giant feared a quick solution that tampered with the taste of the fries could have catastrophic consequences for the chain.

"We don't want to jeopardize the iconic nature of the french fry, which is so important to our brand," Jim Skinner, McDonald's chief executive, said at a recent investor conference. "Yet we have a responsibility to serve the best french fry … that balances between value and nutrition."

McDonald's executives, citing customer reaction in test markets, say that fries cooked in the new oil remain true to their traditional taste, appearance, texture and aftertaste.

"Our customers don't want better," said Barbara Booth, director of the sensory science laboratory for McDonald's. "They want the same."

Booth said she believes the fries prepared in the new oil taste the same as the ones that have been sold by the chain since it opened its first hamburger stand in 1955 in Des Plaines.

A few of the company's executives aren't so sure. But Kevin Cook, senior vice president for U.S. restaurant systems, says he accepts the reaction from customers who have tried the new fry at 1,200 restaurants using the oil on a daily basis.

Field tests of the oil have been ongoing in several markets, including Phoenix, since last summer. In feedback sessions, customers repeatedly have told McDonald's that they can't discern a difference, according to Cook.

The current tests, which Cook said are now complete, were the fourth time the company field-tested a substitute oil since the ill-fated announcement that it would introduce the new oil within six months.

The three other oils failed for various reasons. Some clogged cooking filters, others failed to produce a quality fry that could hold up as it cooled.

McDonald's first started looking at a trans fat-free oil in 1999, asking for help from Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc. Cargill led the scientific blending and testing of oils, while McDonald's did extensive tests on how it cooked and tasted.

Cook, who has overseen efforts to develop the new oil from the beginning, said the time and effort have paid off.

"I still can't get it right" he said about his performance in blind taste tests that require him to distinguish fries cooked with the new oil from those made with the current oil.

But even with the formula in hand, replacing the millions of pounds of trans fat-laden hydrogenated vegetable oil used each year by McDonald's isn't going to be easy.

The company's 13,700 U.S. restaurants alone use more than 75 million pounds of oil each year.

Complicating McDonald's effort is the fact that there is a limited supply of the special high-oleic-acid canola and soybean seeds needed for the oil.

"There is a lot of demand out there for a relatively small amount of certain products," said Robert Reeves, president of the Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils in Washington.

Ram Reddy, vice president and general manager for Cargill's Naperville, Ill., office, said the company began signing contracts with farmers last spring. But it must secure more contracts from farmers in the United States, Canada and South America to ensure the supply needed by McDonald's would be consistently available.

"We really needed 18 months to 24 months advance lead time to ensure we have enough (for McDonald's U.S. restaurants)," said Reddy, who has been at the front line of developing oils for McDonald's since 1987.

"We're not going to turn the french fry into a health food, but it is going to be healthier," Reddy said.

Distributed by McClatchy Newspapers Information Services.