Food Processors & Supermarkets Move Forward on Trans Fat

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Food Processors & Supermarkets Move Forward on Trans

Fat

Chain Restaurants Lag Far Behind, According to CSPI

Survey

While many of America's biggest food manufacturers and

supermarket chains are busily replacing trans fats

with more healthful substitutes, the biggest

restaurant chains are still frying French fries,

chicken nuggets, and other fast foods in

trans-fat-laden, heart-attack-inducing partially

hydrogenated oils, according to a survey conducted by

the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

Link: http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/trans_report.pdf

Trans-fat labeling on packaged foods becomes mandatory

on January 1, 2006. That looming deadline has been a

powerful incentive for supermarkets and food

manufacturers to switch to healthier oils, but CSPI

found that the lack of any nutrition labeling or

disclosure requirements for restaurant chains has

caused them to lag far behind.

While several major restaurant chains, including Yum!

Brands, corporate parent of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza

Hut, told CSPI they are testing healthier oils, only a

few chains have already taken action. They include:

* Au Bon Pain, a 220-location café chain based in

Boston, has eliminated trans fat from all of its

cookies, bagels, and muffins, and is now using a

non-hydrogenated margarine;

* 's Deli, a 137-outlet sandwich and salad chain,

has stopped using partially hydrogenated oils in all

of its products;

* Panera Bread, a 773-outlet café chain that was

formerly part of Au Bon Pain, is in the process of

replacing all partially hydrogenated oils and plans to

be trans-free by year's end;

* California Pizza Kitchen has removed trans fat from

deep-fried foods and is working on eliminating it from

all other foods.

Last year, Ruby Tuesday, with some 700 table-service

restaurants around the country, began deep-frying in

heart-healthy canola oil, though its suppliers still

par-fry some items in partially hydrogenated oil.

Chik-fil-A fries in peanut oil in its outlets, though

its suppliers also par-fry French fries in partially

hydrogenated oil. Among companies that responded to

CSPI, Starbucks, ice-cream chain Friendly, and

fried-chicken chain Popeyes indicated they had no

plans to remove or reduce trans fat in their foods.

In 2002, Mc's famously promised to reduce and

ultimately eliminate the trans fat in its cooking oil,

but in 2003 it quietly retreated from its pledge.

Mc's settled a lawsuit against it on the matter

by giving $7 million to the American Heart Association

and by promising to spend more money informing its

customers about the " delay. "

Although Mc's has reformulated Chicken McNuggets

and a few other products to have a little less trans

fat, its fried foods are still very high in trans

overall. A meal including a 5-piece Chicken Selects

and a medium order of French fries has about 9.5 grams

of trans fat-five days' worth of trans fat if one were

following the recommendations of the government's

Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Mc's

outlets in Australia, Denmark, and Israel all fry in

trans-free oil.

Meals at other restaurants also are loaded with trans

fat. KFC's Chicken Pot Pie contains 14 grams of trans,

and Taco Bell's Nachos BellGrande has seven grams.

" Selling food cooked in or with partially hydrogenated

oils is like selling a car without seat-belts, " said

CSPI executive director F. son.

" Partially hydrogenated oil causes thousands of

avoidable premature deaths, and the restaurant

industry's reluctance to change is absolutely

reckless. "

Processed food manufacturers have made much more

progress than restaurant chains. According to CSPI's

survey, seven of the 10 top-selling cracker brands

have been reformulated to contain zero grams of trans

fat per serving. (CSPI warns, however, that the FDA

lets companies treat amounts of trans under half a

gram per serving as zero. Someone eating several

servings of foods that contain just under half a gram

of trans could easily reach their daily limit without

knowing it.) Food manufacturers making headway on

trans fat include:

* Kraft has eliminated most or all trans fat from

Triscuts, Wheat Thins, Chips Ahoy, Mallomars, Reduced

Fat Oreos, Boca products, Honey Maid low fat Cinnamon

Grahams, SnackWell's Cracked Pepper crackers, and

other products;

* Gorton's has replaced partially hydrogenated oils

with healthier oils in its entire line of fish sticks

and fillets;

* Weston Bakeries plans to eliminate trans fat

in all Entenmann's and Freihofer cake and danish

products;

* McCain now uses canola oil for all of its grocery

and retail frozen potatoes and one line of its

food-service French fries.

Supermarket chains are also making progress, according

to CSPI. Whole Foods has never sold foods with

partially hydrogenated oil, and nine of 11 chains that

responded to CSPI's queries say they have already made

changes or plan to do so for their store-brand

products. Wegman's has been making gradual changes for

years; the Raley's and Giant chains have asked

suppliers to make changes and have switched to

trans-free McCain for store-brand frozen French-fries.

" Including trans fat on food labels has had a much

greater positive effect that most people imagined, "

said son. " Nevertheless, the federal government

should do what Denmark has done, and actually require

companies, including restaurants, to send partially

hydrogenated oils down the garbage disposal of

history. " Denmark limits trans fat to 2 percent of the

fat or oil content of foods.

Although small amounts of trans fat occur in meat and

dairy foods, 80 percent of trans fat in the diet comes

from partially hydrogenated oils. Trans fat is the

most harmful of fats in the food supply, since it both

raises LDL, or " bad " cholesterol, and lowers HDL, or

" good " cholesterol. Dr. Walter C. Willett, professor

of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of

Public Health, and his colleagues estimate that trans

fat in food causes at least 30,000 premature deaths in

the U.S. each year.

Although CSPI has been aggressively urging food

companies to eliminate partially hydrogenated oils,

the group does not want companies to switch to palm

oil. That oil is generally produced in Indonesia and

Malaysia, where oil palm plantations have replaced

rainforest teeming with orangutans, tigers, and other

endangered species. Moreover, it promotes heart

disease, though not to the same extent as the typical

partially hydrogenated oil.

CSPI's survey included 38 major food manufacturers,

100 restaurant chains, and 25 supermarket chains.

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