Posted on 02/19/2006 8:10:54 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
McDonald's Corp is facing at least three lawsuits in the US related to its disclosure last week that its french fries contain wheat and dairy products.
Debra Moffatt of Lombard, Illinois, seeks unspecified damages in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Cook County Circuit Court that accuses the company of misleading the public. Her lawyer, Thomas Pakenas, said his client has celiac disease that causes gastrointestinal symptoms when set off by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat.
"You cannot sell gluten-free french fries when they have gluten," Pakenas said. Moffatt's lawsuit seeks class-action status.
McDonald's said on February 13 that wheat and dairy ingredients are used to flavour its fries. Those substances can cause allergic or other medical reactions in food-sensitive consumers.
Earlier this month, McDonald's also acknowledged that its fries contain a third more trans fats than it previously knew, citing results of a new testing method it began using in December.
Jack Daly, McDonald's senior vice president, said in a statement the company has not reviewed the case yet and is testing its fries for gluten through a food allergy research program at the University of Nebraska.
On Friday, Mark and Theresa Chimiak of Jupiter, Florida, sued the fast-food chain, claiming their 5-year-old daughter has an intolerance to gluten. On Wednesday, Nadia Sugich of Los Angeles sued McDonald's, saying she is a vegan and would not have eaten the fries if she had known they contained dairy products.
Until recently, the company had said its fries were free of gluten and milk or wheat allergens and safe for people with dietary issues related to the consumption of dairy items. But this month, the fast-food company quietly added "Contains wheat and milk ingredients" to the french fries listing on its website.
The company said the move came in response to new rules by the US Food and Drug Administration for the packaged foods industry, including one requiring that the presence of common allergens such as milk, eggs, wheat, fish or peanuts be reported. As a restaurant operator, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's does not have to comply but is doing so voluntarily.
Whatever happened to Common Sense??
What kind of vegan eats at McDonalds? She should have had a milkshake, no trace of dairy in those.
McDonalds had better be covering its posterior six ways to Sunday. Fast food will be sued incessantly now that the anti-tobacco cash cow has peaked.
Food Sensitive Eaters shouldnt be eating McDonalds.
Really tiring.
The day they stopped using lard to cook fries was the day their and all other "fast food" fries became inedible, IMO.
Were they injured or are they just angry?
Not good for folks with Celiac Disease. The consumption of gluten-containing products in these patients can lead to various cancers and cardiomyopathies.
I agree!
OH MY GOD - HE'S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS MAN'S A GENIUS!!!!
Silly you! Thinking Mc Donalds french fries are made out of poatoes!
What potato have you ever seen turn rock hard when it's cold?
Potatoes get soft when they get cold, not hard enough to nail into a wall.
The only fast food french fries that are edible are Rally's.
If there is one potato per 100lbs of McDonalds french fries I would be surprised.
I have celiac disease too, but that stuff doesn't set me off. Maybe he has it worse than me, but I still eat their fries. They're delicious.
What's wrong with wheat and dairy products?
I got mad when my fries were cold.
McD's fries have sucked since the food police made them quit frying them in beef tallow.
Gluten to people with celiac disease (intolerance to gluten) is worse than cancer. I am speaking from experience. My wife is a celiac. Gluten is contained in wheat, barley, oats, maltand rye along with being in other food stuffs as an ingredient including modified foodstarch and soy sauce among other. Try a diet that does not have these ingredients. When a trace of gluten is ingested by a celiac, it is equivalent to poison. Celiac disease is genetic. Out of my wife's family of seven (six girls and a boy) for four sisters have had intestinal surgery and the brother died at 23 with an intestine of an 80 year old. It was 10 years after his death than my wife was diagnosed after being told she had everthing from crones to addison. The only cure for celiacs is total avoidance of gluten. By the way potatos don't contain gluten.
Here goes another one of those massive "class action" jobs! The "lawyers" will get millions in dollars and the rest of us get a coupon for a free super-sized french fries from McDonalds. The legal system in this country is a joke run by a bunch of moronic buffoons.
I take it by your diction that you are Australian. I can't comment on the shakes, but if my assumption is current, McDonald's continues to cook its fries in Canada and Australia in beef tallow the good old-fashioned way. So says Eric Schlosser.
Neither. They're greedy.
Wendy's still has biggie fries.
This goober suing McDonald's probably suffers from a raging case of hatred toward McDonald's.
I don't mind Maccas' fries, but KFC chips are better!
I've no idea what either are cooked in.
BTW, how can you tell my "diction" from the written word?
Whatever happened to common sense?
Life is a risky business.
Nobody ever said french fries were health food.
correct, not current.
All this pandering to the liberals and PC folks is when McDonald's started going downhill. Nobody goes to McDonald's to eat salads or "healthy" foods. If I was the CEO I'd tell these people to go sexually intercourse themselves.
Diction refers not only to pronunciation but also to choice of words. At least it does in American English.
Of 10,000 people, how many might have that trait?
Oh, for CRYING out loud!!
Yep, just what I said.
Well, I'll be buggered! You learn something new every day day.
Down here, it refers purely to the spoken word.
McDonald's sucks!
Some studies say that as many as one in 250 of european descent. For some reason it doesn't affect Asian or African Americans. It is treated widely in Europe and in Canada because the cure is simply the elimination of a "poison" to the system. My wife has been gluten free and healthy for 10 years. She is now in her fifties and was never this healthy.
One person's opinion.
So what do they eat? I, for one, say that we stop feeding them.
Oh how I miss In and Out Burger. It was the only thing that made 3 years being stationed in California tolerable. In and Out Burger has the old manual style french fry presses. You can watch them stuff big ol honker spuds in and pull down on the arm, with the fries falling into a big tub below. They even leave the skins on. One of my buddies out there was from Idaho. He would get those fries, close his eyes, and imagine he was back home.
MMMMMMmmmmm, I'd give anything right now for a Double Double and a large order of fries.
The only time I get upset about Mickey Dee's fries is when they're not hot, or they don't add enough salt to them.
LOL.
"Life is tough. Life is tougher if you're stupid." John Wayne
Some patients are more sensitive than others. I've heard of celiac patients having reactions after using butter on which there were a few crumbs of bread. That being said, unless the individual in the article consumes McDonald's fries on a very regular basis, while he may have temporary symptoms following the meal, it shouldn't much contribute to the long-term complications of celiac disease.
Ohhh Damn! I am so upset about this. I'm lactose intolerant, wheat intolerant and am a professional hypochondriac. Why, oh why, can't the world just bend over and kiss mine?
Don't even ask what their burgers are made of. Suffice it to say, I don't think it comes from cows. A few years ago, I dated a man who raised horses, and he swore to me that most fast food places actually use horsemeat for their burgers. I have tried very hard to block that out, as I go through the drive-thru on a regular basis.
I guess it's kind of like pepperoni or hot dogs. You don't even WANT to know what's there. It tastes good, and you eat it.
I don't know, but when they make fries to satisfy the health freaks, they will no longer taste worth a darn.
We seldom use McDonalds. Yet we make long trips by car two or three times each year. I really anticipate our stops for lunch etc, usually at McDonalds, and nearly salivate over the fries. It's a rare treat to help shorten the miles. I can hardly contain my delight that some clowns who think McDonalds ought to sell only Weight Watchers food for diabetics try to put a stop to this.
Best fries are at In-n-Out Burger.
Ever noticed that Mickey D's fries never, ever decompose?
With all due respect, I disagree. It can be a cumlative impact with symptoms not showing until later years. A strict observance of the diet, once diagnosed is recommended. US doctors are just getting a grasp on this. I am not a doctor, but have personnally educated a GI, a surgeon and a GP. All whom knew nothing of the disease until I returned with information from Canada. This was 10 years ago. (I happened to have lunch with a co-worker in Canada that had been diagnosed for over 30 years and was eating rice bread). I have no doubt that lunch meeting saved my wife's life.
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