The huge US chain of restaurants called Taco Bell has decided to follow the crowd in also getting rid of trans fat from its menu. Taco Bell have announced that they will no longer fry food with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that causes the build up of trans fat in the arteries. From now on Taco Bell will be frying food using canola oil instead.

Taco Bell’s spokesman said that all Taco Bell restaurants will be in a position to fry with the new canola oil that has absolutely no trans fats by April 2007. Taco Bell has a chain of 4,200 restaurants all over America and over one hundred of them have already successfully made the change.

Taco Bell said that they have been experimenting with healthier oils for some time now and have gradually been easing trans fat out of their menus for over 2 years. They claim to have quite a few items on the menu already that have no trans fat.

Trans fats that have been linked to a bigger risk of heart disease are the new target for health campaigners who say that the restaurants could be responsible for heart attacks and obesity all over America. The litigation culture in the United States means that it is possible that obese and unhealthy people could sue these restaurants for not adequately warning them about the risks of the trans fat in the portions that they were eating and this could be part of the motivation from the restaurants to buckle up and get healthier food on the menus.

Many other restaurants have said that they will be taking trans fat from some of their items but only a few like Taco Bell can claim that they will 100% trans fat free in the very near future.

Ukmedix would just like to warn people that the fact that the food served in these restaurants is trans fat free does not suddenly make it healthy and if you visit a fast food restaurant watch out for your portion sizes!!