Starbucks scratching trans fats from menu

Move over, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Beginning today, Starbucks will have no artery-clogging trans fats in the pastries, doughnuts and other food sold at company-owned stores in Seattle and nine other cities.

The Seattle-based company plans to eliminate trans fats in food at all its stores in the United States and Canada by the end of the year.

Artificial trans fats come from a manufacturing process that converts liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and margarine. They are called partially hydrogenated oils because hydrogen is added to the oil in a process that increases its shelf life and flavor stability.

But trans fats raise levels of so-called "bad" cholesterol, which contributes to heart disease.

Many cookies, crackers, snack foods and fried foods have trans fats. The substance also occurs naturally in some animal-based foods, including some dairy products used in Starbucks drinks. Starbucks uses flavored syrups with trans fats as well.

Still, most Starbucks beverages contain 0.5 gram or less of trans fats, said spokesman Brandon Borrman.

Trans fats have been criticized for years, but fast-food companies largely ignored those complaints until December, when New York City decided to ban them in restaurants.

Now giant chains are racing to meet a deadline that will ban artificial trans fats in frying oils beginning July 1, and another that bars the substance from all other foods including doughnuts and cookies by July 2008.

Starbucks joins a growing list of chains, including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy's and Taco Bell, that are drastically reducing trans fats from their menus nationwide.

"I think it's fabulous," said Ryan Kellner, owner of Mighty-O Donuts, which has sold organic, trans-fat-free doughnuts in Seattle since 2001.

His was one of the first, and remains one of the only, doughnut companies in the country that eschews frying in partially hydrogenated oil.

It's not cheap, Kellner said. The palm oil he uses to fry doughnuts can cost twice as much as the trans fat-containing oils. He figures that's one reason it took the food industry so long to come around.

Dunkin' Donuts still hasn't found a way to do it.

"Finding a suitable substitute for trans fats in doughnuts that meets our high standards has proven to be a challenge," Dunkin' Donuts spokeswoman Susanne Norwitz wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

The Canton, Mass.-based company is confident it will have a solution by the July 2008 deadline set by the New York City Board of Health, she said. Meanwhile, it has removed trans fats from many of its items.

Starbucks, which buys some baked products nationally and some from regional bakeries, will continue to carry Top Pot doughnuts at its Seattle-area stores, Borrman said. He was not sure whether baked goods would now cost the company more but said the change would not affect prices for customers.

The chain has worked with food suppliers for about two years to eliminate trans fats from its products, he said.

The other cities where company-owned stores will have no trans fats in their food starting today are Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Starbucks has about 5,700 company-operated stores in the United States. An additional 3,100-plus U.S. Starbucks stores in places such as grocery stores, airports and bookstores are run by other companies.

Kellner is glad for the changes but still plans to keep a binder with lots of information about the evils of trans fats for customers to read at his Mighty-O store near Green Lake.

"Most people don't know," he said.

He said he will never forget when he finally decided trans fats were no good. While experimenting with different types of oils in Mighty-O's early days, he spilled some melted trans fat oil on the street.

"I found it a year later, and it was just dirty," he said. "I started thinking, that's probably what goes on in your body. The stuff doesn't break down."

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com