Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp

To resolve a suit by the state attorney general, the maker of Kentucky Fried Chicken agreed Tuesday to tell its California customers that its fried or baked potatoes contain a suspected carcinogen. The attorney general's office had sued about a dozen major snack and fast-food companies, seeking compliance with Proposition 65, which was passed by voters in 1986 and requires businesses to provide "clear and reasonable" warnings before exposing people to potentially dangerous substances.

KFC's fried chicken buckets soon will be stamped with a health message along with the likeness of its founder, Col. Harland Sanders. The banner proclaims that its chicken has zero grams of trans fat per serving. The chain will announce today that all 5,500 of its U.S. restaurants have stopped frying chicken in artery-clogging trans fat. The company had said in October that it was switching to a new soybean oil believed to be less likely to cause heart disease.

The loser of "American Idol's" final round of competition this week needn't walk away empty-handed. KFC Corp. said Monday it would offer the runner-up $10,000 to star in a commercial for its chain of chicken restaurants. And in case that's not enough, there's also the promise of a one-year supply of its newest menu offering.

An influential consumer group wants to put KFC's fat in the fire. The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to end KFC's use of partially hydrogenated oil in fried chicken and other dishes. If it comes up short, the group wants the District of Columbia Superior Court, where the suit was filed, to order KFC to post signs notifying customers that many of the chain's foods are high in trans fat.

The maker of Kentucky Fried Chicken announced Monday that it would deep-fry most of its menu items without trans fat, saying it had found a soybean oil that could produce more-healthful fare while maintaining the taste long promoted as "finger lickin' good." KFC Corp.'s menu changes, scheduled to be phased in by next April, won praise from health advocates, who said it would force other major fast-food purveyors, such as McDonald's Corp., to make similar moves.

IHOP Corp., the Glendale-based operator of more than 1,200 pancake restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, said Monday that it was testing trans-fat-free oil as other restaurants begin making the switch to the more healthful ingredient. KFC, the home of Colonel Sanders Kentucky fried chicken, announced last week that it would start using oil without harmful trans fatty acids in the U.S. by April. KFC is following Wendy's International Inc.

Decades after the end of the Vietnam War, an American colonel from Kentucky has made a triumphant arrival in this communist capital. But rather than battling for any hearts and minds, this newest in-country campaign is being waged over Vietnam's stomach. KFC Corp. -- and its white-bearded icon, Col. Sanders -- recently became the first U.S.-based fast-food chain to open a restaurant in Hanoi.

KFC is putting the "fried" back in Kentucky Fried Chicken. After 14 years of trying to downplay the image of its food as greasy and unhealthful by calling itself KFC, the chain on Wednesday opened a new restaurant in its hometown of Louisville, Ky., under its former name and plans 50 more this year. The move, the chain's most aggressive yet in its two years of trying to revitalize U.S.

Two animal welfare experts said they resigned as advisors to fast-food chain KFC after the company asked them to sign an agreement preventing them from speaking publicly about its policies on such issues as animal slaughter. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University and Ian Duncan of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, said they stepped down from KFC parent Yum Brands Inc.'

Yum Brands Inc., the operator of the KFC and Taco Bell fast-food restaurants, said KFC sales of dishes with roasted chicken weren't winning over as many health-conscious consumers as it expected. KFC introduced non-fried items in May to try to stem declining U.S. sales. Shares of Yum rose 94 cents to $37.95 on the NYSE.