21/1/07 ( Pioneer Press) ATLANTA — Unhappy customers started calling soon after McDonald's announced plans in 2002 to reduce trans fats in french fries.

They no longer liked the taste of the fries. Ditto for the oil. They missed one key fact: McDonald's hadn't introduced the revamped fries yet. In fact, the fast-food giant still is searching for a trans fat-free oil that won't change the taste of its famous fries.

Tinkering with a favorite food carries risks. That's true even when the changes are good for customer health. Trans fats add texture, freshness and flavor. But they also raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol, making them even more dangerous than saturated fats, some researchers say.

Consumers had no way of knowing how much artery-clogging synthetic trans fats they were consuming until last January, when federal regulators required manufacturers to start listing them on their products. Many food companies, such as Kraft Foods and Unilever, chose to remove the fats rather than label them.

The American Heart Association recommends getting no more than 1 percent of daily calories from synthetic trans fats. That's about 2 grams for a 2,000-calorie diet.

Harvard University scientists estimate that eliminating synthetic trans fats from the food supply would prevent as many as 72,000 heart attacks every year in the United States.

Figures like those are fostering change. New York City plans to begin banning trans fats in restaurants in July. Chicago, Seattle and others are considering it. Some states are following suit. Restaurant chains from KFC to Starbucks are working to remove the unhealthy oils.

The New York City ban should hasten the removal of trans fats from chain restaurant offerings. Many chain restaurants use the same suppliers and cooking methods in all locations, so it's simpler and cost-saving to make changes companywide.

As many of the country's largest restaurant chains scramble to replace trans fats in their best-loved items, some are learning from what happened to McDonald's.

Atlanta-based Arby's quietly started testing trans fat-free cooking oil last year. Ed Gleich, a vice president, says a panel of 100 to 200 customers approved its new fries on the first taste test so the company rolled out the trans fat-free oil.

Jason Nealey of Acworth eats at Arby's every week and hasn't noticed a change in the curly fries. He says he grabs lunch where convenient, without much regard for healthy offerings.

"People are going to eat what tastes good," Nealey said. "But if it tastes the same, and it's healthier, great."

Arby's plans a national rollout of the trans fat-free oil by May, and when it completes the switch, 70 percent of its offerings will have less than .5 grams of trans fats per serving. The switch for fries was relatively simple because the healthier oil tasted much like the original.

But the company still is trying to get the trans fats out of its turnovers without noticeably changing the texture. It's trickier to change the recipe for baked goods than fried foods.

Synthetic trans fats have been popular with food processors for decades as a cheap way to add shelf life to margarines and cooking oils, and crispness to everything from fried chicken to cookies.

Trans fats occur naturally in meat and dairy products. Synthetic trans fats, created when hydrogen gas is forced through vegetable oil, are the ones that concern nutritionists.

The search for a fat replacement starts at the farm. Food manufacturers are dropping partially hydrogenated soybean oil for sunflower or corn oil, or for a soybean oil made from a genetically modified plant. Seed developers and farmers are working to increase supply.

"It's not a change that can happen overnight," said Sue Hensley, National Restaurant Association spokeswoman.

Other possible substitutes include products higher in saturated fat, such as butter and palm oil. Nutritionists are concerned that food companies and restaurants may just trade trans fats for saturated fats instead of switching to healthier unsaturated fats.

When Panera Bread, based in Richmond Heights, Mo., substituted the trans fats in its baked goods, it chose butter and palm oil. Customers say they prefer the new, buttery taste, says Director of Bakery Development Tom Gumpel.

Panera wanted to keep the flavor the same or improve it, he says. "Truthfully, I don't want anybody to recognize the change. It's like somebody changing the Coca-Cola recipe. There goes the brand."

Starbucks announced recently that pastries and sandwiches at half its company-owned stores no longer contain trans fats. The company plans to eliminate the unhealthy oils by year's end at its other 2,800 stores and at 3,200 licensed sites in airports and supermarkets.

The National Restaurant Association says it doesn't have a figure for how much it is costing the industry. The conversion hasn't been swift. Some restaurants have been working for years on changes just now showing up on their menus.

McDonald's still is searching for its magic formula. Going trans fat-free involves switching oils in its 13,700 U.S. restaurants as well as at the companies that supply its french fries, which are fried briefly before they're frozen and shipped to the hamburger chain. Making the switch will require large quantities of oil, something that's been hard to line up, says spokesman Bill Whitman. And the fries and other foods must taste the same.

"McDonald's fries are America's favorite," Whitman said. "Our goal is to ensure that they stay America's favorite."

The Illinois-based company has switched to trans fat-free foods in other countries, and will meet the July deadline for trans-fat-free frying oils in New York City, Whitman says. To that end, McDonald's has tested 18 oil blends.

It's trying the latest version on customers in some markets without telling them they're trying a reformulated product.

A tip-off that something is different might trigger the same complaints the company received in 2002, when nothing had changed at all.

"It's kind of a placebo effect," Whitman said.

At Wendy's, customers haven't seemed to notice the new frying oils introduced last summer, said Denny Lynch, a vice president. After two years of experiments, the fast-food chain removed trans fats from its kitchens, and is working to eliminate vestiges of trans fats in frying done by suppliers.

A medium order of fries contains a half-gram of trans fats now, down from 5 grams earlier this year. The switch hasn't affected sales, Lynch says.

That's welcome news for Wendy's. "We're in business to sell food that people will buy," Lynch said.