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Trans fats in foods are down but not out
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
By Chronicle Staff Writer Kim Severson
MAY 26, 2004
The fight over the amount of trans fat in America's diet is hotter than ever -- both on supermarket shelves and in the halls of the federal government.
A food advocacy group petitioned the Food and Drug Administration last week to completely ban food made with trans fat. That would spell an end to plenty of products that use partially hydrogenated vegetable oils -- the substance that contains unhealthy trans fats.
Producers of cookies, crackers, microwave popcorn and most supermarket cakes make regular use of shortening and other forms of partially hydrogenated oils because they extend shelf life and add crispness or creaminess, depending on the product. The fat also is bubbling in most deep-fat fryers at fast-food and family-style restaurants.
Nutritionists and lipid researchers agree that the artificially produced trans fat is the most dangerous fat in the food supply, increasing bad cholesterol levels faster than saturated fat and interfering with the body's metabolic process. The National Academies' Institute of Medicine last year concluded that there is no safe level of trans fat in the diet.
Food manufacturers don't have to disclose trans fat amounts on food labels until 2006, when a new federal law kicks in.
That deadline has already had a strong effect on the market, with major food processors like Frito-Lay and Oreo-maker Kraft searching for substitutes so they don't have to list trans fat on their packages. Earlier this spring, Campbell's introduced a version of its Pepperidge Farms Goldfish crackers without trans fat. Within the next couple of weeks, Crisco, a product that became synonymous with the unhealthy fat, will be available in a trans-fat-free version.
Still, consumer activists at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, say this isn't enough. The consumer group, which started the effort to require trans-fat labeling in the 1990s, jumped back in the battle last week and asked the FDA to completely ban the fat.
"In the intervening 10 years there has been more and more evidence indicating that trans fat is much worse that was thought originally," says Michael Jacobson, CSPI executive director. "There is no need to have this noxious fat in the food supply. We're saying treat this as a substance that causes tremendous harm, probably tens of thousands of deaths a year."
Food manufacturers immediately criticized the request for the ban as the wrong way to address the problem.
"Nutrition experts -- including FDA -- have called for consumers to choose diets low in trans fats, not to eliminate them," said Regina Hildwine, a spokeswoman for the National Food Processors Association. She added that efforts to eliminate trans fats might lead consumers to replace trans fats with more saturated fats, which can also lead to heart disease.
Jacobson said his group didn't ask for an all-out ban a decade ago when the request for better trans fat labeling went to the FDA because it wasn't clear that any good alternatives existed. But all that's changed. "It's quite clear it can be replaced in every function. There are safer substitutes," he says.
Note from Holsum Bakery: Trans fat in foods is a result of adding hydrogen to vegetable oils prior to producing the final product. While this process does extend the shelf life of that ingredient, it has been linked to increasing LDL or "bad" cholesterol in those that consume it. Holsum Bakery is working to eliminate trans fat content in our products.
(Click here to read about the FDA final ruling on trans fat labeling.)
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