Group Seeks to Ban Type of Fat from Foods

A U.S. consumer group asked the government on Tuesday to bar restaurants and food manufacturers from using a type of artery-clogging fat found in pastries, cookies, crackers and deep-fried foods.

A U.S. consumer group asked the government on Tuesday to bar restaurants and food manufacturers from using a type of artery-clogging fat found in pastries, cookies, crackers and deep-fried foods. The ingredient, called partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, is formed when food makers harden liquid oil to make it solid. It is the main source in Americans’ diets of trans fat, which raises the “bad” cholesterol, LDL, and increases the risk of heart disease. Removing partially hydrogenated vegetable oil from the food supply could save between 11,000 and 30,000 lives each year, the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest said in a petition to the Food and Drug Administration. “Getting rid of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is probably the single easiest, fastest, cheapest way to save tens of thousands of lives each year,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the consumer group. Partially hydrogenated oil is used to make shortening and some types of margarine, and is found in thousands of processed foods. Other trans fats occur naturally in beef and dairy products. Health officials advise Americans to consume as little trans fat as possible. Food industry groups said some companies already had reduced or replaced trans fats in their products, and others were looking for alternatives. The challenge is to find a substitute that does not raise the level of saturated fat, another major contributor to high cholesterol, said Stephanie Childs, a spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America. “We don’t want to fall into the trap of replacing an ingredient simply because there’s pressure to replace it and find we have not improved the quality,” Childs said. Starting in 2006, the United States will require packaged foods to carry labels telling people how much trans fat the products contain. CSPI said it was starting a campaign to encourage more companies to replace trans fat in their products. A CSPI Web site lists information about which foods contain trans fat and urges consumers to lobby McDonald’s Corp. to use healthier oil for deep frying. McDonald’s said in 2002 it would switch to a healthier cooking oil but has not yet done so, CSPI said. McDonald’s spokeswoman Lisa Howard said the company was testing ways to reduce trans fat. “We want to make sure we get it right,” she said. CSPI said people do not need to avoid fully hydrogenated oils, which contain little or no trans fat. (Source: Reuters Health, May 2004)