The lawyer, Harish Bharti, says the company is deceiving people by stating the fries are cooked in 100% vegetable oil, when in fact the fries have first been pre-flavoured with beef. He cited an email from the company revealing that suppliers used small amounts of beef in the cooking process. Mr Bharti adds that this hurts the feelings of Hindus, and that he is supported by a million other US-based NRIs, and 15 million vegetarians in the country.

According to the newspaper report, McDonald’s explains the fries-making method as a two-stage process. In the first stage, small amounts of beef extract are added to the chopped potatoes, after which they are semi-fried and frozen. These fries are then sent to the various McDonald’s restaurants, who then fry the product again in vegetable oil before serving it.

Mr Bharti argues that when customers read the ingredients list and are told the fries are cooked in 100% vegetable oil, they would naturally assume the product is vegetarian. But a McDonald’s spokesman was quoted as saying that the company never claimed the fries were suitable for vegetarians.

Mr Bharti was quoted as saying, "By concealing the existence of beef in their French fries and allowing plaintiffs and members of the class to consume the French fries in violation of their sincere religious beliefs, the conduct of the defendants was so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency."

(The McDonald’s website lists the ingredients of the fries as: "Potatoes, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, natural flavor, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (to preserve natural color). Cooked in partially hydrogenated soybean and corn oils, TBHQ (to protect flavor)."

- nriol.com report

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