By Michael S. Rosenwald
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 1, 2007

In a move affecting the cooking of more than 6 million pounds of french fries a year, Marriott International is eliminating frying oil containing trans fats from its more than 2,300 hotels in the United States and Canada.

The Bethesda hotel chain, which plans an announcement today, is making the change as restaurant companies and even theme parks grapple with public-health concerns that have prompted New York City officials to ban trans fats from the city's restaurants. Trans fats have been linked to health problems, including heart disease.

A number of big restaurant groups recently announced they were dropping oils containing trans fats, including Wendy's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Ruby Tuesday, Legal Sea Foods and the local chain Silver Diner. This week, McDonald's said it was beginning to use trans-fat-free oil. Yesterday, Burger King said it has begun testing new oils in its restaurants.

"It's great to see one food company after another announce they are getting rid of trans fats," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

For decades, restaurants have been using vegetable oils that have gone through a process called hydrogenation, which increases shelf life but produces trans fats. The new oils are made with genetically modified soybean oil that contains lower levels of an acid that reduces shelf life.

Marriott is the largest but not the first hotel chain to announce the elimination of trans fats. Loews Hotels, which has 18 properties, said in December that it would complete a switch of frying oil by today and follow up over the next few months by removing trans fats from salad dressings, pastries, waffles and pancakes.

Omni Hotels plans to announce today that its 40 hotels will be trans-fat-free by March 1.

Marriot has been eliminating trans fats since 1998, including from all artisanal breads, salad dressings, pancake and waffle mixes, muffins, croissants and cookies at all hotels in North America. The fix for many of those items, which had contained the fats in margarine, was easy: Make cookies with butter, for example. But frying was different. "This was the hardest one," said Brad Nelson, Marriott's corporate chef.

Marriott has been testing new frying oils for two years but encountered taste problems, an issue McDonald's has also dealt with. Nelson said early versions of trans-fat-free oils had a strange aftertaste, but he thinks New York City's trans-fat ban forced manufacturers to improve flavors.

Marriott is purchasing its new oil from Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill, which is also supplying McDonald's. The oil will be used for everything that goes in the deep fryer, including chicken fingers.

"It tastes the same," Nelson said. "It's not a detraction, that's for sure, whereas two years ago you would have said something different."

Marriott will also stop using frozen fries that were blanched in oil containing trans fat.

Nelson said he expects the entire hotel industry to ban trans fats.

"I think it's things like this that I, as a parent of three kids, agree with and support," he said. "I think the industry recognizes that there are things like this that can be done to help the overall approach to health."