Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp

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.

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.'

The only people in the dingy New Wind Restaurant at lunchtime are the cooks, who are playing cards. Asked about the restaurant's specialties, owner Ding Huang skips the sales pitch with a curt: "It's Chinese food." Across the parking lot, smiling hostesses, "flowers," as they are known, welcome a steady stream of customers to KFC. Cash registers ring up a sale every 90 seconds in the two-story air-conditioned restaurant.

Pepsico Inc. announced today that it has reached an agreement in principle to purchase Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. from RJR Nabisco Inc. for about $850 million in cash. Kentucky Fried Chicken is the second largest restaurant chain in the world--after McDonald's Corp.--with its 6,500 franchised and company-owned restaurants. Pepsico already operates Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants, in addition to its Pepsi-Cola soft drink and Frito-Lay snack foods businesses.

In a food-and-beverage-industry version of the domino theory, a high-level executive change at Philip Morris Cos.' General Foods division has led to similar changes at Kraft General Foods, as well as Pepsico Inc. and its Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. subsidiary. Miles L. Marsh, who served as president of General Foods USA, will move to Whitman Corp. Sept. 1 as president and chief operating officer, according to the company.