- SEATTLE (Reuters) - A
vegetarian
lawyer is claiming millions of dollars in damages from McDonald's Corp.,
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.
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