Suit: McDonald's knew it sold cancer-causing chicken

McDonald's Corp., Burger King Holdings Inc. and Friendly Ice Cream were accused in a lawsuit of selling chicken they know contains a chemical that can cause cancer even in small amounts.

McDonald's, the world's biggest restaurant company, and the two other companies were sued today in state court in Hartford, Connecticut. The suit, filed by Washington-based Cancer Project on behalf of two Connecticut residents, seeks class-action, or group, status on behalf of people who bought or ate the grilled chicken between October 2006 and this month.

The companies "concealed the presence of a known carcinogen in their grilled-chicken products to retain profits that would be lost, in whole or in part, as a result of properly informed consumers choosing other food products," the residents said in their complaint.

The suit follows one filed in California last month against Yum! Brands Inc.'s KFC unit by Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, accusing the restaurant company of selling chicken with the same chemical, PhIP, which forms during the grilling process. California listed PhIP as a known carcinogen in 1994, according to the complaint.

That suit was filed under California's Proposition 65, a public-health law. The Connecticut suit is filed under that state's unfair-trade practices law.

The case is Delio v. McDonald's Corp., Connecticuit Superior Court (Hartford).