Media & Marketing

                    McDonald's Is Sued Over Its Use Of Beef Extract in French Fries

                    By DEVON SPURGEON
                    Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

                    After 11 years of touting its fries as cooked with 100%
                    vegetable oil, McDonald's Corp. is conceding that the recipe
                    also includes a very small amount of beef extract.

                                         A consumer lawsuit filed Tuesday
                                         charges McDonald's with "fraudulently
                                         concealing the existence of beef in their
                                         french fries." The lawsuit, filed in King
                                         County Superior Court in Seattle, seeks
                                         an injunction against the use of beef
                                         tallow, which is made from the fat of
                                         cattle. McDonald's denies the existence
                                         of beef tallow in its french fries.

                                         The plaintiffs are three vegetarians,
                                         including two Hindus who avoid meat for
                                         religious reasons. They claim they were
                                         "fraudulently induced to purchase and
                                         consume McDonald's french fries." Their
                                         suit seeks class-action status on behalf
                                         of all vegetarians who have eaten
                                         McDonald's french fries since 1990.

                                         The french-fry category of the official
                    McDonald's ingredient list makes no mention of beef tallow or
                    beef extract. The top three ingredients in french fries are
                    potatoes, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and natural
                    flavor.

                    But McDonald's, Oak Brook, Ill., issued a statement Tuesday
                    acknowledging the presence of a beef flavoring in its fries.
                    "The natural flavoring consists of a miniscule amount of beef
                    extract," the statement said.

                    "We never made any claims of vegetarianism with our french
                    fries or any other product," McDonald's spokesman Walt Riker
                    said. "We have said that we use beef flavoring all along."

                    The lawsuit contends "a reasonable person would reasonably
                    conclude the use of the term 'natural flavor' to mean flavors
                    natural to the potatoes or vegetable oils in which the product
                    is presumably cooked." McDonald's literature says its fries
                    are cooked in hydrogenated soybean oils and corn oils.

                    In 1990, McDonald's made a big to-do of cooking its fries in
                    100% vegetable oil. The company and the plaintiffs disagree
                    on whether that amounted to a claim that the fries were
                    100% vegetarian.

                    But the acknowledgment of the presence of beef extract
                    could alienate vegetarians who had considered the fries to be
                    entirely untouched by meat.

                    Write to Devon Spurgeon at devon.spurgeon@wsj.com