<p>A Southern fast food chain known for its fried chicken sandwiches is now adding apples, grapes, pineapple and oranges to its menu to take a lead in an industrywide health push by being the first to offer fresh fruit cups.</p><p>Fruit cups are part of a new lineup of healthy offerings by Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A that include Dasani water and a low-calorie, low-fat chargrilled chicken sandwich, which has 270 calories and 3.5 grams of fat.</p><p>It's another move by a fast food restaurant to provide healthy alternatives for its customers. Salads becoming commonplace at hamburger chains. Last month, McDonald's launched adult Happy Meals, complete with salad, bottled water, pedometer and health advice. This month the McDonald's is expected to introduce healthier choices in its kid-sized Happy Meals.</p><p>Yet Chick-fil-A officials promise its most famous offering _ its fried chicken sandwich, which is pressure cooked in peanut oil and has 410 calories and 16 grams of fat _ will remain. The fast-food chain has 1,142 branches in 37 states and Washington D.C.</p><p>"We don't want to reinvent our brand and try to be something different _ we always want to offer the customer a real balanced menu," said Woody Faulk, the chain's vice president of brand development. "We're not going to try to become the health brand or ... the all-fried brand. We want to have everybody in the car be able to have something they can eat."</p><p>About four years ago, customers started telling the company they wanted to have healthy items in addition to the breakfast chicken biscuits and sandwiches the chain is well known for.</p><p>"The fruit cup issue kept bubbling to the top," Faulk said.</p><p>But providing fresh fruit has always been a problem for fast food chains. The fruit has to be prepared properly and must be kept cold to prevent it from going bad.</p><p>Fries are cheaper _ to exchange fries for fruit in a combo meal costs about 40 cents more _ but company officials believe the cups are "priced appropriately." The regular-sized cup costs $1.85 and a large sells for $2.85, and officials say this is a price customers will pay and allows the company is able to recover costs of providing the fruit, said spokesman Mark Baldwin.</p><p>"Why other fast food brands haven't been able to crack this code is it's hard," Faulk said. "You literally have to treat it with kid gloves once it goes off the truck."</p><p>The company solved the fruit cup puzzle by finding a supplier who prepares the fruit offsite. The precut, individually packaged fruit is brought by refrigerated trucks to the Chick-fil-A restaurants.</p><p>Shortly before it's needed, employees mix the fruit together in a bowl and divide it into fruit cups. Once mixed, the fruit needs to be sold that day, Baldwin said.</p><p>The move by Chick-fil-A pleases health officials, who say increased consumption of fruits and vegetables is needed when 30 percent of U.S. adults are obese.</p><p>Eating fruits and vegetables have a "major impact" in preventing a variety of chronic diseases, from heart disease to diabetes and cancer, said Dr. Bill Dietz, director of the division of nutrition and physical activity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p><p>Kathy Neely of Riverdale, Ga., was trying out the fruit cups on Tuesday at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta's trendy Buckhead neighborhood.</p><p>"I know it's better for me than the fries," said Neely, 42. "When I start to eat healthy, I realize it tastes good, too."</p><p>The new offerings come as no surprise, however, to restaurant industry analysts. Large hamburger chains began offering salads a few years back and now everybody is looking to introduce other healthy items.</p><p>"It's just another example of another fast food company trying to broaden their menu to include more healthful alternatives," said Mark Sheridan, an analyst for Johnson Rice and Co. in New Orleans. "Nothing's proprietary. Success guarantees competition. If there's something Chick-fil-A does very well, I promise you you'll see more people doing it."</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x2865778)</p><p>HASH(0x2863778)</p>
