Trans-action

Better Nutrition, Oct, 2003

It's a hidden killer, and it's in your food. But it doesn't appear on product labels.

On July 8, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally announced a long-expected ruling that will require food manufacturers to list the deadly trans fat content on their Nutrition Facts food labels.

Trans fat is created when hydrogen gas is bubbled through vegetable oil to create partially hydrogenated oil. It's the reason that Crisco stays solid, cookies fresh and crackers crisp. Partially hydrogenated oil can be found ill about 40 percent of the food at the grocery store, including some "low-fat" products most consumers regard as healthful. The body has no need for trans fat, which acts like saturated fat in the body and promotes higher levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the "bad" cholesterol, and lower levels of high-density" lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol. Until now, consumers have been unable to determine the trans fat content of their food unless they looked for the phrase "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" on ingredient labels.

Following a decade of lobbying by health activists, the new requirement should give consumers a chance to see which products carry the high-risk fat. However, the new regulation is weaker than the proposal issued by the FDA in 1999. For instance, the new labels won't place the amount of trans fat into the context of a day's diet. The FDA had been urged to use the existing Daily Value (DV) for saturated fat--20 grams per day--as the new combined DV for "saturated plus trans" fat. That way, consumers could look to a single Daily Value number for both unhealthful fats. The Canadian government already requires food manufacturers to treat trans fat that way because it places the amount into context.

In another major retreat from the original proposal, the FDA will allow food manufacturers to use claims such as "low in saturated fat" on labels for products, even if those products are loaded with trans fat. That may blind consumers to the fact that a product low in saturated fat--but high in Irons fat--is just as deadly as one that's high in saturated fat.

Still, this historic labeling decision will likely prompt manufacturers to start reducing trans fat content. Although full compliance with the new regulation isn't required until 2006, many food manufacturers--wishing to promote their products as less harmful--are expected to begin listing trans fat soon.

One US food industry leader was previously quoted as admitting, "If the government isn't going to require us to put trans fats on our labels, then there's really no reason for us to do so."

Now there is.