A class action lawsuit has been filed in the Bronx Supreme Court, seeking compensation against four leading fastfood chains that are accused of contributing to the plaintiff’s obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
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Maintenance worker Caesar Barber and others have filed the suit against McDonald’s, KFC Corp., Burger King and Wendy’s.
Reuters reports that Barber, who has had two heart attacks, told MSNBC he did not realise fried food was bad for him until three years ago and that he had been eating fastfood for decades because it was convenient. “I didn’t find out how bad it was until 1999,” he said. “I ate a lot because I was by myself.”
The suit also seeks to force the companies to label individual products with salt, cholesterol, fat and other nutritional information, and also to warn consumers of the health effects.
It claims consumers are not getting fair warning that fastfood can cause poor health. New York attorney Samuel Hirsch, who is representing Barber, said: “Fastfood chains failed to disclose the contents in terms of calories, fat grams and sodium. Even when posted, the information is not easily understandable to the public.”
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By GlobalDataIndustry associations have responded in different, but predictable, ways to the news. A National Restaurant Association executive said the lawsuit “gives frivolous a bad name.” Meanwhile, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine applauded the lawsuit, predicting that it will be “just the first of many lawsuits holding the food industry at least partially to blame for America’s diet-related epidemics”.
