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KFC Healthier in China Than in U.S.
I didn't know what trans fats are. So I looked it up and read that they are chemically modified fats produced from the hydrogenation of plant oils and animal fats. I still don't know what they are. But I hear about them all the time. A few years ago, I started seeing "0g Trans Fat" on bags of chips and stuff. And I remember thinking to myself, "well I don't know what these trans fats are but at least I'm not ingesting any with my Sun Chips." And then I moved to China. Never heard about trans fats, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, or any other type of fat. The only time I've heard a Chinese person talk about fat, it has been in reference to me. And then at the end of September, the New York City Board of Health voted to implement citywide limitations on trans fat content in all of the city's 20,000 restaurants. And while the idea behind making New Yorkers more healthy is admirable, it seemed to be a bit strange that the government was regulating fat intake. And then on Monday, KFC, facing a lawsuit for the amount of trans fats on its delicious menu, announced that it would be dropping all trans fats from the oil used to cook its chicken. The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, was immediately withdrawn. Thursday's China Daily reports that China's over 1,500 KFC restaurants are doing the same thing that I do when I go to KFC-- sticking to the original recipe (the extra crispy is just too much batter). It's not that the China KFCs are refusing to get behind America's trendy health objectives, but rather, the China stores don't need to eliminate trans fats because they have never used trans fats. Or so they say. KFC China said in a statement yesterday, "We are very glad to hear that KFC (United States) has changed to frying oil without trans fatty acids. All KFC products (in China) meet the national food safety standard." Well that's easy if your national food safety standard is that it tastes good. But think about this. America, the richest most powerful country in the world, obsessed with health and wellness despite rampant obesity, uses more harmful ingredients than does China, a developing country whose people couldn't give two shits about eating healthy while remaining extremely fit. There's no lawsuit culture in China. There's no mandatory nutritional information. And the sanitary and health laws here are extremely lax. If the chicken was being hacked up behind the counter at a Shanghai KFC, blood and feathers everywhere, people would still eat it. And still lick their fingers. Why has KFC been wasting the healthy oil in a place where nobody cares about the difference? I tried to get an answer from KFC headquarters, but the Chinese Colonel Sanders, Chairman San De Lou, could not be reached for comment.

•China Daily: Safe From Trans Fats