Trans Fats going unlabeled...

LAT1963

Not all items labeled "zero trans fats" are really "zero trans fat". Trans fats are bad for you because your body has no way to eliminate them once consumed, and they accumulate to clog your arteries throughout your life until you die.

Via AMA Wire:

Study: Consumers likely eating more trans-fat than what labels say.

NBC News (8/29, Fox) reports on its website that consumers “are getting more trans-fat” than they think that are getting in processed foods, citing a study published in the in the CDC journal Preventing Chronic Disease. The study by a team from New York health department found that “many foods labeled trans-fat-free” actually “contain some of the artery-clogging gunk.”

According to TIME (8/29) reports trans fats “slip into packaged foods via partially hydrogenated oils, cheap vegetable oils that prolong shelf life and contain trans fat.” The article notes that even if partially hydrogenated oils are noted on the label, “companies are allowed to claim the product contains 0 grams of trans fat, as long as the amount is limited to between 0-0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.”

The New York Daily News (8/29) reports that the researchers surveyed 4,340 “best-selling foods in the U.S. and found that 9% listed partially hydrogenated oil, but 84% of those companies listed 0 grams of trans fat per serving.” According to the piece, “the worst culprits were baked goods, crackers, frozen foods and products with seasonings.”

The San Francisco Chronicle (8/29, Allday) reports the FDA is “considering a policy that would officially deem partially hydrogenated oils unsafe.” If such a decision is made, then food manufacturers would be forced to remove them from their products.

The NPR (8/28) “the salt” blog also reports on the study.

ssbobbyh

I sense a class action lawsuit.

And in this case, I hope that the consumer wins. People can eat what they want, but not informing them of what they are eating is bad. MISINFORMING them of what they are eating is even worse.

extra_medium

"products with seasonings"

seems like a weird thing to throw into the list of worst offenders without more explanation

stealthq

This is not a new thing.

It isn't even unique. Under 5 calories per serving is shown as 0 calories on nutritional labels. Guaranteed there are other such cutoffs for other components as well. NPR acts like the companies are 'getting away' with something, when all they're doing is following current government guidelines.

Besides. The ingredients are listed for everyone to see. If you're freaked over trace amounts of trans fats, just avoid everything with 'partially hydrogenated' in the label.

LAT1963

This is not a new thing.

It isn't even unique. Under 5 calories per serving is shown as 0 calories on nutritional labels. Guaranteed there are other such cutoffs for other components as well. NPR acts like the companies are 'getting away' with something, when all they're doing is following current government guidelines.

Besides. The ingredients are listed for everyone to see. If you're freaked over trace amounts of trans fats, just avoid everything with 'partially hydrogenated' in the label.

Yup. But not everyone knows that.

Kalikel

This isn't new and is the reason I brought my glasses to the supermarket, lol.

Big Food hires good lawyers to handle stuff like this. They don't use your run of the mill, in-house guys. I suspect they've already begun work.

There would be such a fight. It would be in the courts for years and years.

cosmiqrust

just like your zero-calorie sweetener isn't zero calorie. do people really expect the food industry to be Honest about what's going in our bodies? :laugh:

Francl27

I thought everyone knew that...

CrunchyDad

Yep, this is one of the first things I learned when becoming educated on reading food labels. Anything with partially hydrogenated oil, has trans fat. The scary part is when you look at serving sizes, take coffee creamer for example. It might be 1tsp per serving, some people might use 2 or 3 per cup. Then they might have 3 or 4 cups in a day. So if each serving has 0.5g trans fat in it, you're actually consuming up to 6g of trans fat when the label reads ZERO. It's appalling.

The same thing goes for almost any ingredients that the public have become wise to and generally frowned upon, such as MSG. They now use an ingredient "yeast extract" or (autolyzed or hydrolyzed) that is composed mainly of MSG, but they can still label the product MSG FREE. This applies to any ingredient as long as it is made up of 78% or less MSG, according to the FDA.

LAT1963

Yep, this is one of the first things I learned when becoming educated on reading food labels. Anything with partially hydrogenated oil, has trans fat. The scary part is when you look at serving sizes, take coffee creamer for example. It might be 1tsp per serving, some people might use 2 or 3 per cup. Then they might have 3 or 4 cups in a day. So if each serving has 0.5g trans fat in it, you're actually consuming up to 6g of trans fat when the label reads ZERO. It's appalling.

The same thing goes for almost any ingredients that the public have become wise to and generally frowned upon, such as MSG. They now use an ingredient "yeast extract" or (autolyzed or hydrolyzed) that is composed mainly of MSG, but they can still label the product MSG FREE. This applies to any ingredient as long as it is made up of 78% or less MSG, according to the FDA.

In that case lets splice the THC gene into a beer yeast and....

cwolfman13

I sense a class action lawsuit.

And in this case, I hope that the consumer wins. People can eat what they want, but not informing them of what they are eating is bad. MISINFORMING them of what they are eating is even worse.

highly doubtful...this is nothing new. reading the fine print is always important.

WalkingAlong

Trans fats are bad for you because your body has no way to eliminate them once consumed, and they accumulate to clog your arteries throughout your life until you die.

You've posted that a few times today. I really don't think it's quite like that. They are a dietary fat linked to heart disease but if our bodies had "no way to eliminate them once consumed" we would all be giant bags of trans fat by now. These were a decent part of most peoples' diets, until the conventional wisdom turned on them. Wisely, but it's not like it's strychnine in your food.

ahoier

Not to take the thread off topic......but what does everyone say to "modifying" foods in the MFP database, that contain partially hydrogenated fats/oils......to 0.5 grams trans fats......IF they are not noted?


I've heard this is the "loop hole" that the FDA is allowing the food manufacturers "get away with" - they can plaster "0g trans fats per serving" all over the bag of cookies/chips/breads/tortillas.....if the "serving size" contains less than 5g of trans fat.......

For example, I looked at some "mission" brand tortilla soft taco shells I had in my fridge......sure enough, they have all over the bag "0g trans fats per serving!" - go to the back Nutrition panel, and Trans Fat.........0g......go down to the INGREDIENTS list, and you will find the 3rd ingredient down is "vegetable shortening (partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oils or Palm Oil or Corn Oil"

What I am referring to, is here:

http://www.bustle.com/articles/37932-trans-fat-labels-lie-to-you-and-the-fda-lets-it-happen

Basically, the FDA made a loophole......the manufacturers can note 0g trans fats, if the item has "less than 0.5g of trans fats" - so they put it in perspective......in my example, 1 tortilla, is listed as 0g trans fat.....BUT, if I have 2 tortilla shells, I'm essentially consuming 1g of "undocumented" trans fats......

Kalikel

For example, I looked at some "mission" brand tortilla soft taco shells...

OMG, there is a kind of Mission tortilla (hard) chip that I absolutely loved. It puts all other to shame. So freaking good.

I'd sit and eat them plain, they were that good.

In heave, they are serving ground meat, covered in cheese...and it's sitting on those Mission chips.

kimmylois1981

Yup it's kind of gross when you start reading the ingredient listed as far as trans fat!

MinimalistShoeAddict

This is not a new thing.

It isn't even unique. Under 5 calories per serving is shown as 0 calories on nutritional labels. Guaranteed there are other such cutoffs for other components as well. NPR acts like the companies are 'getting away' with something, when all they're doing is following current government guidelines.

Besides. The ingredients are listed for everyone to see. If you're freaked over trace amounts of trans fats, just avoid everything with 'partially hydrogenated' in the label.

Yup. But not everyone knows that.

Yes many people know all about trans fats, the FDA rounding and labeling rules and are now researching interesterified fats which are quickly replacing trans fats in certain types of baked goods: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interesterified_fat)

However many others are still trying to figure out the difference between "loosing" and "losing", BMR and TDEE, pounds and kilograms.

Education, not regulation is the answer here.

Patttience

Another good reason to give up eating processed foods and stick with whole foods. The thing is the food industry should be punished for its manipulation and abuse of the public.

Do it by stopping to buy all their products. Put them out of business.

Get into cooking for yourself. You love the food you cook if you go with some of the great recipe books that are out there.

MinimalistShoeAddict

Another good reason to give up eating processed foods and stick with whole foods. The thing is the food industry should be punished for its manipulation and abuse of the public.

Do it by stopping to buy all their products. Put them out of business.

Get into cooking for yourself. You love the food you cook if you go with some of the great recipe books that are out there.

Nice try but trans fats are contained in meat and dairy (whole foods) as well. There are good reasons to reduce trans fat intake. However eliminating them completely is not a realistic goal for most people.

paperpudding

I am about to say something really radical here.

I am not worried about a small amount of trans fats.
In moderation, say, the amount of margarine you would spread on your toast, it is not going to hurt you.
It is not strychnine, as already posted.

However I also think your American system if allowing less than 5 calories or less than x amount of a product, to be called zero is crazy.

In Australia, there is no such loophole. So we don't have Pepsi Max, for example, as zero calories per can, we have it as 2 calories.
We also have everything labelled as x amount per 100ml or 100g.
Much better system

DawnieB1977

In England, where I live, I think the rules on labelling are a lot stricter. We don't have 0 calories for example, if something has 1 or 2 calories, it is labelled as such.

neanderthin

This is not a new thing.

It isn't even unique. Under 5 calories per serving is shown as 0 calories on nutritional labels. Guaranteed there are other such cutoffs for other components as well. NPR acts like the companies are 'getting away' with something, when all they're doing is following current government guidelines.

Besides. The ingredients are listed for everyone to see. If you're freaked over trace amounts of trans fats, just avoid everything with 'partially hydrogenated' in the label.

Yup. But not everyone knows that.

Trans fats are also found in non hydrogenated cheap refined vegetable oils like soy and canola. This takes place during the refining process in the deodorizing stage......

amusedmonkey

Here all products, other than imported ones, have trans fat if it exists, even if it's 0.1 g. Diet drinks also have calories, even if less than 5. For example my usual Diet 7 Up lists 1.5 calories per 100 ml (that's 4.5 calories per can - and it's from carbs if you're curious).

I don't fuss too much about trace amounts of things, though.

Edit: If it's less than 0.5 g it's not listed as such. It's listed as "trace". Same with less than 10 mg of sodium. I could not find a product with trans fat in my pantry but here is an example of how it would look like:

neanderthin

Here all products, other than imported ones, have trans fat if it exists, even if it's 0.1 g. Diet drinks also have calories, even if less than 5. For example my usual Diet 7 Up lists 1.5 calories per 100 ml (that's 4.5 calories per can - and it's from carbs if you're curious).

I don't fuss too much about trace amounts of things, though.

Edit: If it's less than 0.5 g it's not listed as such. It's listed as "trace". Same with less than 10 mg of sodium. I could not find a product with trans fat in my pantry but here is an example of how it would look like:

In Canada legally they can say a product has no transfats if the product has no transfats but if it has 0.5g or less of trans fat they can say 0 transfats, which means the product has trans fats, ironic but true. Other countries differentiate between natural and man made and very strict in the classification, which should and probably will be what happens in Canada at least, well hopefully.