SEATTLE, May 2 (Reuters) - A vegetarian lawyer is claiming millions of dollars in damages from McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - news), accusing the fast food company in a lawsuit of ``secretly'' lacing its french fries with beef fat. Citing an e-mail in which the Oak Brook, Illinois company discloses its suppliers use tiny amounts of beef flavoring, the suit charges McDonald's with fraudulent claims for saying its fries have been cooked in pure vegetable oil.

``We will seek injunctive relief to stop this practice ... and we are seeking damages, including punitive damages, that will easily be in the hundreds of millions of dollars,'' said Harish Bharti, who filed the class action suit in King County Superior Court on Tuesday.

A McDonald's spokesman said the restaurant chain had never claimed to offer vegetarian food and that it freely provides ingredient information to anyone who requests it.

Stressing all of its food products are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, spokesman Walt Riker said McDonald's fries contain ``minuscule'' amounts of beef products, not the beef fat alleged by the lawsuit.

``We are very open,'' Riker said. ``We have probably 25 million people a day come to our restaurants in the United States. I don't think anybody is coming in thinking that we are marketing vegetarian items.''

Bharti, an Indian native who avoids meat in adherence to his Hindu religion, said he filed the suit on behalf of the million or so Hindus in the United States and 15 million vegetarians who may have unknowingly eaten meat products.

``McDonald's didn't have any right to deceive people this way,'' Bharti said.

In some overseas markets, including parts of Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia, McDonald's does offer fries with no meat or pork content in order to conform to Islamic halal standards, Riker said.

-- (cin@cin.cin), May 02, 2001

Answers

Of course I would be grossed out knowing I had unknowingly-at-the time eaten meat products. But this is ridiculous.

-- (cin@cin.cin), May 02, 2001.

Cin: If you don't mind my asking, exactly WHERE do you draw the line? I have several friends who are vegetarians and sometimes I'm at a loss when I invite them for dinner. We have a couple coming over Saturday night, and she DOES eat fish. Another friend doesn't eat meat OR fish, but she DOES eat fowl.. chicken, turkey, etc. A few other friends draw the line to exclude dairy products of any kind and eggs. I make soy dishes for those friends.

I'm a once/year McDonald fan, myself. In fact, I'm convinced I received that speeding ticket last fall because I'd pulled out of McDonald's on the way home from school and was busy stuffing those hot fries in my mouth while driving, anxious to get home and enjoy the Big Mac. McDonald fries are the best on earth, IMO, but they must be really hot to be enjoyed. [Heh...maybe if they cool, one realizes they've been cooked in animal fat that's congealed on the surface. As 'Sumer would say, "eeeeeeeew!"]

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), May 02, 2001.

Bharti, an Indian native who avoids meat in adherence to his Hindu religion

I have heard about this on the redio today, it is not a vegitarian choice he makes, it is part of his religious beliefs. Cows are sacred to them, it would be like us eating something with bits of human in it.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), May 02, 2001.

In Honor Of UnK Dee's Quote of the Day....

"Kill all the lawyers"

Wasn't that a dude named Shakespeare??

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), May 02, 2001.

Good point, Cherri, but I can't see too many vegetarians venturing into mcdonalds. Also, I have heard some horrid stories of their slaughtering practices. That's enough to keep me out, even if only for the fries.

-- (cin@cin.cin), May 03, 2001.

"In some overseas markets, including parts of Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia, McDonald's does offer fries with no meat or pork content in order to conform to Islamic halal standards, Riker said."

I suggest the raghead go back to the Middle East where he can have it his way. Americans like beef in their fries!

-- little old lady (where's @ the. beef?), May 03, 2001.

The beef is part of the flavoring they put on the fries. That is where the conflict lies, they use all vegetable oit to cook them, they claim they have told everyone about the beef on the fries--for decades. Have any of you ever heard them "tell" you about it? I'll bet it is in the fine print on one of their neutrition statement pamplets. How many of you have read one? i have picked one up to read while waiting in line, but couldn't bring myself to read the entire thing, hell, I read everything and those things are designed to make you loose interest. I doubt many people have read the entire thing.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), May 03, 2001.

This meat-flavored fries thing from McD is not new. In fact, the flap seems to bubble up every 5 years or so for the last 25 years.

-- okey (what@about.it), May 03, 2001.

It seems to me no surprise. All there fries have always tasted like animal fat. You CAN taste the difference when you eat um.

I got burnt out on um, and did anyone ever get a batch where you could tell the grease was old?

ewwwww!!!!

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), May 03, 2001.

I'm not a lawyer, but if information was provided the consumer on a form in the establishment listing all the ingredients [no matter how fine the print], doesn't this automagically absolve McDonalds of liability in this matter?

I don't think too much about what establishments put into the food, but some friends and I went to a Cantonese restaurant in Chicago. My friends said that MSG gave them headaches, so they specifically said, "No MSG" to the waiter, and I guess they didn't get it.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), May 03, 2001.

I'm not a lawyer, but if information was provided the consumer on a form in the establishment listing all the ingredients [no matter how fine the print], doesn't this automagically absolve McDonalds of liability in this matter? Yep. Exactly.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), May 03, 2001.

French Fries: Potatoes, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, natural flavor, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (to preserve natural color). Cooked in partially hydrogenated soybean and corn oils, TBHQ (to protect flavor).

LINK

-- (Ronald@Mc.Donald), May 03, 2001.

Well, I'm sure proud to be on the top of the food chain.

PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals

-- Ted (Ted.Nugent@whackem_and_stackem.com), May 03, 2001.

We went to a livestock sale barn in a small community near us a few weeks ago. Several truck loads of hogs came in. Some were in good health. Some were starving. Some were foaming at the mouth from having water withheld possibly for days. Some had -- there was a word for it I don't remember -- their anal orifices had ruptured from being squeezed in a truck by other hogs weighing hundreds of pounds apiece.

There were some with broken legs. These were the most pitiful. All of the hogs were frightened as they were forced through the sale ring, but the ones dragging themselves on their bellies and knees were ... they cried.

Anyway, there was a big fellow in the ring who looked like he was decended from Neanderthals on his momma's side. All he was supposed to do was to keep all the animals moving around in the ring so the buyers could get a good look at them. He had a hot shot. I personally wouldn't go into a small enclosure with a calm hog on a good day, so I can't say the hot shot was unnecessary. However, this big guy liked using it on the animals. The healthy ones were moving around wildly, so there was absolutely no need to hotshot them. He did it anyway. The healthy ones crashed into and further injured the sick and hurt animals. Then he started hotshotting the hogs with broken legs. He did it over and over while they writhed face down in shit trying to get away. Hogs trying to escape through the ring exit too soon had heavy metal doors slammed on them hard. I heard a bone break once.

We had gone to get another goat. The kids were having a good time. After a while they realized what was going on, and they became upset. There was an undercurrent of muttering among the buyers and sellers, but no one had the individual authority to do anything about it. The ASPC had investigated this sale barn several times, but the Neanderthal knows who they are and simply waits for them to go away before resuming his fun.

You would think that keeping the animals in peak health would be the goal of the meat producer, but at the sale barn level most of the animals are on their way to the slaughterhouses. I heard the auctioneer referring to one particular hog with a goodish section of its rectum hanging out with "you'll never taste it in the sausage." The animal was going to be killed soon, so apparently there was no further need for humane treatment.

Many of my family and friends are farmers. They are small producers in the meat industry. Their animals are not part of the huge corporate farms where animals are born, raised, and processed on the premises. The small producers must use the services of the local sale barns. I don't know what percentage of our national meat production comes from the small producer, but ALL of the small producers I know treat their animals humanely on the farm. The horrific abuse doesn't start until the animal goes to sale. Small producers rely on the income from the sales. Small communities are not a good place to lead crusades. Everyone you may offend knows where you live. My family and friends would be hurt financially if most people cut back or eliminated meat from their diets.

That said, every time I go to the meat section of the grocery store, every time I see clean-looking meat all wrapped up in sanitary plastic, I see the one with two broken front legs...it cried. It cried tears.

There is only one way to eliminate this type of abuse. Vote with your money. Don't buy meat. Find other protein sources. Read the labels all the way through and don't buy it if it contains animal by-products. The only meat by-product that doesn't end up being used in a product is the scream.

(And if anyone dumps two pit bull dogs on you for Easter, use .223 and make your first shot count.)

-- helen (been@the.sale), May 03, 2001.

my my helen, you're full of surprises

-- (cin@cin.cin), May 03, 2001.

Cin, I'm sorry about the dogs. The only reason one dog didn't grab the kid she was chasing was because the kid ran through a flock of chickens. The dog went nuts on the chickens. One hen has a broken leg. We didn't know for several days if our old pet rooster would make it after being grabbed and shaken. Chickens tend to walk around for a while before they realize they're dead, so it's hard to tell. We've rescued every other dumped dog in our time here. There have been several this year alone.

I didn't mean to upset you. We were furious at the jerk who put us into the situation, and if we hadn't been there we would have lost all of our animals. The point of my post was to rail at the stupidity and callousness of idiots who think they can dump their problem animals on other people with foolish notions that everything will work out ok in the end. It rarely works out to the animals' advantage.

Again, I'm sorry for upsetting you.

-- helen (apologizing@cin.today), May 04, 2001.

Sorry Helen. As far as cin is concerned, your animals, which are part of your family, are not nearly as important as two murderous dogs.

-- (mmm@yum.tasty), May 04, 2001.

helen,

don't apologize to the bitch, tell her to fuck off!

-- (cin is @ full. of shit), May 04, 2001.

On more than one occasion McDonalds said when asked that they did not cook there Fries with anything meat!

I am sure that most of you would be mad if you found out that they were using humans, bugs, worms, rats, ect. to flavor the fries and I doubt that using natural flavoring for an excuse would make you any happier. Just think about it! You could be eating such things everytime you eat there! Would you stay quiet and do nothing about it?

-- DeQ (deqtheoriginal@juno.com), May 30, 2001.