Burger King Holdings (NYSE: BKC) announced today that it has started to roll-out its trans-fat-free cooking oil to its restaurants around the United States. Expectations for the fast-food giant to become trans-fat-free are slated for the year-end of 2008 and could be sooner if additional supplies of fat-free oil are available.

Burger King, known for its flame-broiled burgers, uses cooking oil for its French fries and the majority of its chicken products. The switch to trans-fat-free oil follows the steps of other fast food chains like McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX), Wendy's (NYSE: WEN), Applebee's (NASDAQ: APPB), Yum! Brands' (NYSE: YUM) KFC and Taco Bell units, and even Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE: WMT) delicatessens.

Where did all the taste go?

"In tests on over a dozen core items, consumers determined that products cooked in trans fat-free oil tasted the same or better than products cooked in the traditional oil," according to a statement from Burger King's president of global marketing, strategy and innovation, Russ Klein.

Burger King is one of the last fast-food companies to address the issue of trans-fat, according to Bloggingstocks.com's Julie Tilsner. The Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Burger King in May saying the company moved too slow and failed to set a time table for the removal of trans-fat from its restaurants.

Regardless of the taste, in order for consumers to eat the "healthier" fast-food products, investors will more than likely have to cough up a little more at the register -- the supply of trans-fat-free oil is limited.

The good folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest are at it again. In the mid-90s I wrote about this group for Business Week, when it made the claim that Chinese food was bad for you. Shocking!

In the crosshairs this time? Burger King. The public advocacy group is suing Burger King (Burger King Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BKC)) because it's bad for you.

Not quite the same shock effect as the Chinese food report had. Fast food bad for you? Stop the presses!

But what better way to get your point across than with a shocker of a lawsuit? According to the group, the home of the Whopper is increasing its patrons' risk of heart disease and early death by knowingly using trans fat in its cooking. The CSPI is asking a District of Columbia Superior Court judge to order the chain to stop using the ingredient, or at least put a suitable warning on its packaging. Hey, skulls and crossbones are in fashion these days. Might work. Anything has to be better than that creepy "King" the company is using these days.

The larger point: Burger King is the last of the large fast food chains to address the very real issue of trans fat. In February the chain announced that it had been testing alternative oils, and that it hoped it would be able to roll something out in late 2008. This came two days after McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) announced it would stop using trans fat.

Given the well-documented perils of trans fat, it's hard to be critical of whatever methods are used to ban the cancer-causing substance. I'm not ragging on CSPI. The group does good work, and it's been an early and vociferous agitator in bringing childhood obesity into the light of day. But sometimes I wonder if the group isn't a little Quixotic. Suing a fast food chain because the food is bad for you takes a particular kind of chutzpah.

Joining the rats (or perhaps that isn't a good analogy for a KFC story) jumping off the trans fat ship, Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) has announced that it has stopped using the controversial product in its U.S. KFC and Taco Bell restaurants. Taco Bell is still working to purge it from all of its ingredients. Use of the reputed coronary-clogging fat in other Yum brands Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut, and A&W was not addressed.

Yum joins the avalanche of food providers discontinuing the use of trans fat in response to public demand, which led some cities such as New York to pass legislation banning its use. Trans fat is popular with restaurateurs because it prolongs fry oil life and stability.

Still looming over Yum's head, though, is the threat of the U.S. Senate's ongoing hearings about obesity in children and the possible culpability of the fast food industry. Expect this story to play out in the fall, even as companies such as Yum Brands to begin introducing healthier options.

In the meantime, I'm relieved I no longer have to worry about nasty trans fats as I dig into my KFC Mashed Potato Bowl (690 calories, 31 grams of fat -- 31 grams is more than a quarter-stick of butter!), or an order of Taco Bell's Nachos BellGrande (790 calories, 44 grams of fat -- over a third of a stick of butter).

Ironically, Colonel Harlan Sanders, creator of the secret recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken, lived to 90, and died of leukemia, not a heart problem.

KFC, a subsidiary of Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM), has announced that it will eliminate trans fat from its fried chicken, and proudly proclaims this fact on its buckets. While it's certainly good news from a health perspective, I wonder if it will have any positive impact on the company's marketing: Does anyone who eats Kentucky Fried Chicken really care about their health anyway?

This seems a little bit like offering a kosher menu at a fundraising event for a church. The people who will be impressed by the change to trans fat-free still won't be going there anyway.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) doesn't break its expenses out by food group, but if it did, "dairy" would certainly be on the top of the list. It may be a coffee company, but milk makes up a large percentage of most of its beverages.

Since the company has switched to trans-fat free pastries, the next item on its list of consumer health phobias: hormones in milk. Artifical growth hormones fed to cows improve milk production; naturally, their use is rife with controversy. Some activists blame artificial growth hormones, known as rBGH, for a wide number of public health problems, from early onset of puberty for girls to interference with a woman's healthy pregnancy.

Starbucks, not one to sit on the sidelines of a potential PR benefit, has announced that all its U.S. stores will switch to rBGH-free dairy products (milk, half-and-half, whipped cream and egg nog). The company hasn't noted when this changeover will occur, although a spokesman said that the percentage of hormone-free milk had gone up from 27% to 37% since the end of 2006.

Sure, ten percentage points in two weeks is a huge jump; but with 63% of the company's dairy products left to go -- and no way to know whether your local shop is hormone-free without raiding its fridge -- activists are reserving their celebrations. And no patting Starbucks management on the back for being proactive. The company has been targeted by the Food and Water Watch, among others, in a campaign to eliminate hormones for several months.

The news seemed so lovely, so sudden, so decisive: effective tomorrow first thing, Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) stores in my hometown, Portland, and in several other major cities (including Seattle, San Francisco, and New York) will replace all trans-fat loaded treats with versions that are free of the artery-clogging stuff.

You'd think I'd be happy. After all, I'm the one who rails on companies for using trans-fats in their foodstuffs, and examines grocery store labels so carefully I did a whole photo essay on it. And both I and my adorable, sugar-crazed kids are frequently found at our local Starbucks, eating the chain's doughnuts, its Cranberry Bliss Bars, its glazed, colorful cookies.

But here's the thing: I didn't realize Starbucks treats had any trans-fats! In announcing this proactive and kind move, Starbucks shook the very foundation of my blissful ignorance. Heading immediately over to Starbucks' web site, I pull up the nutrition information for my local store (since treats are baked locally and different stores have different offerings, each "zone" has its own nutrition sheet). And I am floored.

For nearly 10 years now, I've been fiercely guarding my shopping cart. The wicked would-be interloper: partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, also known as trans fats or trans fatty acids. And it's in everything, from wheat bread to soup to my favorite sticky candy bars. For a while, I was a lone voice and a lone label-reader, inspecting in the wilderness of my grocery store aisles without another soul to fight against the cheap, shelf-stable, yet bad-for-your-heart fat.

In the past few years, a growing public backlash against the stuff, known to contribute to heart disease and obesity, has led to its removal from many major products, from Lay's chips to sandwich cookies. Most Trader Joe's products are now free of the substance (and thus, it's my favorite place to shop). And then, this month, came the New York City ban: no restaurants will be permitted to use trans-fatty acids in cooking oils come July, 2007 -- and trans fats will be banned entirely from all foods available in restaurants by July 2008. This week the Washington State Board of Health announced it was considering a similar ban throughout the northwestern state.

Should you join me and New York City's best (and not-so-best) restaurants? Should you ban trans-fatty acids from your pantry, too? I looked at a bunch of products in my local grocery store to evaluate whether they were worth banning and whether or not my budget could manage it.

McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD), the world's largest restaurant chain, today said that it will be returning up to $10 billion to its shareholders over the next 18 to 24 months. CEO Jim Skinner also detailed some of the chain's plans during a presentation in New York this morning.

Skinner indicated that McDonald's was working to lower the level of trans fats in its french fries. Good grief -- it's hard to understand why the world's largest food-service company, with huge resources at its disposal, can't keep up with smaller chains that have already announced the elimination of trans fats from their menus within the next few years. Here's my advice to McDonald's: be an example and get this done to the benefit of all your customers. Also, design an entire marketing campaign around this effort and draw even more customers into your stores.

Skinner did say that the company plans to comply with New York City's law to limit the level of trans fats in restaurants if, or when, a city ordinance to that effect is passed there. Chicken salads and low-priced chicken snack wraps have played integral roles in the growth rate of McDonald's this year, Skinner said and according to him, the chain was working on a new premium chicken salad and versions of the chicken snack wrap. Eek -- don't fix what isn't broken!