New fast food fad: the bacon sundae

Monique Fischer samples her first bacon sundae. Photo / Chris Loufte

It's the newest food crime.

Forget the KFC Double Down, forget the Carl's Jr foot-long burger. Burger King has just launched its new bacon sundae against the unsuspecting American public - and there are calls to bring it to New Zealand.

Nutritionists are worried this could be the next Double Down fad. That burger - two pieces of deep-fried chicken sandwiching cheese and bacon and described as the "super villain of fast food" - clocked in at 540 calories and weighed in with 32.3g of fat.

The Burger King bacon sundae, with 510 calories, is similarly bad news for anyone with a weak heart.

The salty-sweet dessert contains soft-serve ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, bacon crumbles and a thick piece of bacon garnish - and it is rushing from the fastfood chain's US chillers.

Here, Eric Crampton from Christchurch has been campaigning on Twitter for its sale in New Zealand.

"I'd never thought of putting bacon and ice cream together but it makes sense - maple syrup makes bacon taste better and it goes really well with ice cream too," he told the Herald on Sunday. "And a bacon ice cream sundae annoys all the sorts of people who really need to be annoyed from time to time."

Auckland student Lily Liu has joined the online bandwagon, trying to gather Facebook support to get the sundae to New Zealand.

"It's a real novelty," she said. "I reckon if Burger King brought it in people will want to try it out of curiosity."

But Auckland nutrionist Jacquie Dale is appalled at the idea. "It sounds disgusting," she said. "To put it into context, it's 15 teaspoons of sugar with some dead pig in it."

In Auckland's Royal Oak, Ollies icecream and burger parlour owner Colin Haines was not too concerned about the calorie intake and agreed to make up his own, special bacon sundae for the Herald on Sunday. It looked a lot better than Burger King's soft-serve version. He said: "If you're a fan of bacon, you're really going to like this."

Haines will put his bacon sundae on his menu for one day only - today.