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ByCandiceChoi TheAssociatedPress NEW YORK Fast-food chains have a New Year's resolution: Drop the junk. As people express dis- taste for food they think is overly processed, McDon- ald's, Taco Bell and other chains are trying to shed their reputation for serv- ing reheated meals that are loaded with chemicals. That includes rethinking the use of artificial preservatives and other ingredients cus- tomers find objectionable. "This demand for fresh and real is on the rise," said Greg Creed, CEO of Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut. During the presentation for analysts and investors last month, Creed said the company needs to be more transparent about ingredi- ents and use fewer preser- vatives. Recasting fast-food as "fresh" and "real" will be tricky, in large part because it's so universally regarded as cheap and greasy. An- other problem is that terms like "fresh," "real" and "healthy" have nebulous meanings, making it hard for companies to pin down how to approach transfor- mation. One way chains are look- ing to redefine themselves is by purging recipes of chemi- cals people might find unap- petizing. Already, packaged food and beverage compa- nies have reformulated products to remove such in- gredients, even while stand- ing by their safety. PepsiCo, for instance, said it would remove brominated vegeta- ble oil from Gatorade after a petition by a teenager noted it isn't approved for use in some markets overseas. And fast-food chains are indicating they want to jump on the "clean label" trend too: — Last month, McDon- ald's USA President Mike Andres outlined improve- ments the company is working on, including the simplification of ingredi- ent labels. Without provid- ing details, he said to ex- pect some changes in early 2015. The remarks came af- ter the company reported a 4.6 percent decline in U.S. sales for November, capping two years of struggling per- formance. "Why do we need to have preservatives in our food?" Andres asked, noting Mc- Donald's restaurants go through supplies quickly. "We probably don't." —Subway, a privately held company that does not disclose sales, started air- ing TV ads Thursday for its new chicken strips free of artificial preservatives and flavors. After suffering bad publicity, the company said earlier last year it would re- move an ingredient from its bread that an online peti- tion noted was also used in yoga mats. The ingredi- ent, azodicarbonamide, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and widely used as a dough conditioner and whitening agent. —Chick-fil-A said in 2013 it would remove high-fruc- tose corn syrup from buns and artificial dyes from its dressings. A couple months later, it said it plans to serve only chicken raised with- out antibiotics within five years. — Carl's Jr. last month introduced an "all-natural" burger with no added hor- mones, antibiotics or ste- roids. "We are obviously looking at other products on our menu to see which ones can be made all natu- ral as well," said Brad Haley, the chain's chief marketing officer. It's not clear how far fast- food companies will go in reformulating recipes. But the nation's biggest chains are facing growing compe- tition. In the latest quarter, customer visits to tradi- tional fast-food hamburger chains declined 3 percent from a year ago, according to market researcher NPD Group. Fast-casual chains — which are seen as a step up from traditional fast-food — saw visits rise 8 percent. Part of the appeal of fast- casual chains is that they position themselves as be- ing higher in quality. Chi- potle, which touts its use of organic ingredients and meat from animals that were raised without anti- biotics, said sales at estab- lished locations surged 19.8 percent in the most recent quarter. And Panera vowed this summer to remove ar- tificial colors, flavors and preservatives from its food by 2016. The ethos of wholesome ingredients is increasingly being embraced across the industry. But not without some challenges. Dan Coudreaut, exec- utive chef at McDonald's, has noted the difficulties in changing recipes. In an interview last year, he said McDonald's is looking at ways to use culinary tech- niques to replace the func- tions of certain ingredients. "If you take (an ingredi- ent) out, what are you giv- ing up?" he said. Michael Jacobson, exec- utive director of the Cen- ter for Science in the Pub- lic Interest, said there are likely many cases where ar- tificial preservatives or col- ors could be replaced with natural alternatives with- out significant costs. Since their functions vary, he said companies would have to evaluate recipes product by product. BUSINESS Fa st -f oo d re so lu ti on : Tr an sf or m ju nk f oo d im ag e DAVIDDUPREY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE A customer looks at the menu at a McDonald's drive-thru in Williamsville, N.Y. The Associated Press YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK A dispute over the names of such iconic Yosemite Na- tional Park locations as the Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village has the park service considering renaming them. Buffalo, New York-based Delaware North Compa- nies, the park's current con- cessionaire, has told park officials it owns the names and should be paid as much as $51 million for them if another company takes over the concession contract. The park service is cur- rently soliciting bids for the contract and disputes Del- aware North's ownership contention. "These names are his- torical," park spokesman Scott Gediman told the Fresno Bee. "They are part of Yosemite. The Ahwahnee dates back to 1927, and Curry Village goes back to 1899. These places and their names belong to the Ameri- can people." Still, Gediman said the park service could change the names to protect other bidders from the added cost of buying them. The contract to operate concessions at Yosemite is among the largest in the national park system with over $120 million in gross revenue each year. Delaware North won the contract for 15 years in the 1990s and was granted extensions to run the concessions after the contract was supposed to end in 2008, according to the Bee. The new con- tract is set to be awarded in mid-2015, and some ob- servers say Delaware North may be trying to lessen its value for any potential com- petitors. The company has not decided yet whether it will bid on the new contract, said Lisa Cesaro, a spokes- woman for Delaware North at Yosemite. Cesaro said the company was required as part of its 1993 contract to purchase all assets and liabilities in the park, including intangi- ble assets such as the rights to the names. So it is only natural at this point that it would seek to sell them back, she said. "We are in favor of a fair and transparent bidding process for the Yosemite concession contract, which is why we believe it is im- portant to have a mutually agreed upon value for the concessioner assets, both tangible and intangible, es- tablished in advance of the bid submission due date," she said in a statement. PARKS Dispute could lead to iconic name changes at Yosemite By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO A practice of withholding calls and visits at a new psychiatric unit on death row at San Quentin State Prison can discourage inmates from seeking the treatment they need, a court-appointed overseer said this week. The California Depart- ment of Corrections and Rehabilitation is re-ex- amining its policy of au- tomatically blocking fam- ily contacts for newly admitted patients as a re- sult, department spokes- woman Dana Simas said Friday. The state opened the 39- bed unit in October in re- sponse to a federal judge's ruling a year ago that con- demned a lack of proper mental health treatment for inmates. Newly arriving patients are not permitted family visits, telephone calls and other privileges that they had on death row, special master Matthew Lopes said in a progress report Tues- day. The privileges are grad- ually restored as incentives while the patients undergo treatment. While the psychiatric program otherwise is gen- erally going very well, that policy often doesn't work and can be counterproduc- tive because it punishes in- mates who seek treatment for their mental illness, he said. Lopes said withhold- ing privileges promotes "a system of institutionalized disincentive to treatment," noting that several patients fought being placed in the unit. "CDCR is committed to providing quality health care to all inmates and we are pleased that the Special Master found the new San Quentin Psychiatric Inpa- tient Program is function- ing at such a high and ef- fective level," Simas said in an email. DEATH ROW State may alter policy for mentally ill inmates SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM |NEWS | 7 A