A lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles on Aug. 26th against nine makers of French fries and potato chips: McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s, Cape Cod Potato Chips Inc./Lance Inc., Frito-Lay Inc./PepsiCo Inc., H.J. Heinz Inc., Kettle Foods Inc., and Procter & Gamble Distributing Co.

The reason? Because acrylamide, a byproduct of cooking starchy foods at high heat that has been identified as a carcinogen by the state of California, shows up in higher levels in those items than in other foods. The lawsuit states that these companies are violating Proposition 65, which was put into effect in 1986 and “requires businesses to provide ‘clear and reasonable’ warnings before exposing people to known carcinogens or reproductive toxins.” (Restaurant News 9/6/05) The federal government classifies acrylamide as a “cumulative neurotoxin and a suspected human carcinogen.” It was added to Proposition 65’s list of carcinogens in 1990, but was not discovered to be present in foods until 2002. While other foods do contain this carcinogen, the plaintiffs are citing government studies indicating that “consumers of French fries receive up to 125 times the amount of acrylamide that requires a warning under current regulations. The attorney general’s office that is filing the suit says that it wants “to find a way to effectively give consumers information about the acrylamide in their products, while at the same time preventing undue public alarm and unnecessary warning signs concerning foods that contain insignificant amounts of the chemical.” Eek – how do you prevent undue public alarm when you’re talking about carcinogens that we didn’t even know was in our food until 3 years ago? What I’d like to see is someone telling me how much of this stuff must be consumed over what time period for it to become dangerous. BUT, honestly, in a nation full of smokers, are people really going to care? So far the large chains indicate that they will not bend as a result of the lawsuit. Most responses fall along the lines of “We follow the FDA guidelines” and “Acrylamide naturally occurs in a large number of foods after heating.” Sooo, in the light of corporate responsibility, are these chains shirking their duties? Obviously the defendants are not the only companies in the U.S. that manufacture potato chips and French fries, so is this another case of Little Guy Nitpicking The Big Guy Whenever He Can? I’m a big fan of receiving information on a need-to-know basis, but I haven’t a clue who gets to decide what I should know and what I shouldn’t. What do you think? Are there ulterior motives at work here?