The lawsuit filed against quick-service giant KFC in June by the US Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) promises to be only the first salvo in a new wave of health-and-nutrition-related litigation aimed at restaurant companies, reports Paul Frumkin on www.nrn.com, the website of Nation's Restaurant News.

CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson said the Washington, D.C.-based nutrition watchdog's complaint against the Yum! Brands chain (also the owner of Pizza Hut), for its use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, could be followed by similar actions against other operators, including Red Lobster, Dunkin' Donuts and Denny's.

The CSPI, which over the past two years has negotiated out-of-court settlements with food makers Tropicana, Quaker and Frito-Lay, is "looking at lawsuits against other restaurant companies," Jacobson said.

The CSPI's class action, filed in District of Columbia Superior Court, seeks to force the 13,000-plus-unit KFC chain to stop cooking with oils containing trans fatty acids, which are believed to cause heart disease. If the court does not prohibit KFC from using the oil, CSPI said its legal action would seek to force the chain to post prominent in-store warnings about the negative effects of trans fats.

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