TRANS FATS NEWS
January - September 2006
TRANS FATS NEWS : 26 September 2006
The Board of Health in New York City proposed a plan to prohibit restaurants in the city from serving food that "contains more than a minute amount of artificial trans fats."|
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The Board invited public comments and would hold a public hearing on the ban on 30 October. The proposal is to give restaurants until July 2007 to eliminate oils, margarines and shortening from the recipes that contain more than 0.5 gram of trans fat per serving. By July 2008 they would have to remove all menu items that exceed the 0.5 gram limit.
Up to 20,000 restaurants could be affected by the proposed ban. Board members say that New York could set an example for the rest of the country.
TRANS FATS NEWS : 6 September 2006
Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke, who had proposed a ban on trans fats in July, has modified his proposal to target only large restaurant chains – including fast food restaurants – with at least $20 million in annual gross sales.
TRANS FATS NEWS : 24 August 2006
Wendy's announced that it has completed the switch to a new cooking oil that significantly cuts trans fats. All of Wendy's 6,300 U.S. and Canadian restaurants are now using the new blend of corn and soybean oil.
On 2 November, however, the US magazine Consumer Reports published the findings of its analyses which found that a large serving of fries purchased from thre Wendy's restaurants in Westchester County, New York, still contained an average of 2.5 grams of trans fats – much more than the 0.5 grams claimed by Wendy's, but at the same time much less than the 7 grams before Wendy's made the switch.
Wendy's said it had rigorously tested and analyzed the fat content of its fries working with an independent lab and that its measurements were more reliable because its "far more extensive" testing was of samples from 12 french-fry suppliers, done by an independent lab and a cooking-oil supplier.
A company spokesman said Wendy's plans to test fries from all its Westchester restaurants to explain the discrepancy.
TRANS FATS NEWS : August 2006
Boston launched a Boston Bestbites campaign to encourage restaurants to serve lighter, healthier meals. Restaurant menu items that meet certain healthy criteria – including the absence of trans fats – get a “Boston Bestbites’ label.
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TRANS FATS NEWS : 2 August 2006
Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda, three big UK supermarket chains, announce that they will eliminate partially hydrogenated oils from their house-brand products by end-2006 or January 2007.
Sainsbury's also said it will remove flavour enhancers (MSG) from its 15,000 house-brand products.
Marks & Spencer has already stopped using partially hydrogenated oil in its food production. Waitrose has been removing partially hydrogenated oils from its foods since the beginning of 2004.
The latest announcements came after British researchers, writing in the British Medical Journal, called for trans fats to be listed on all food labels.
TRANS FATS NEWS : 28 July 2006
British scientists, writing in the British Medical Journal, have called for trans fats to be listed on all food labels, together with saturated fats.
Robert Clarke, Honorary Consultant in Public Health at Oxford University, wrote: "Mandatory addition of the content of saturated fat and trans fatty acids to nutrition labels would enable consumers to make healthier food choices that could lower [bad cholesterol] concentrations and reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and other vascular events."
Alex Callaghan, Policy Officer of the British Heart Foundation, said: "Manufacturers and retailers should clearly label trans fats on food packaging, so that people can make informed decisions about their diet."
TRANS FATS NEWS : July 2006
Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke, who earlier succeeded in banning foie gras on the grounds of cruelty to animals, proposed a ban on the use of partially hydrogenated oils for cooking in Chicago restaurants.
Following a hearing, however, he is now only targeting restaurant chains – including fast food restaurants – with at least $20 million in annual gross sales.
TRANS FATS NEWS : July 2006
Westchester County in New York state became a trans-fat free zone where 125 restaurants have agreed not to use partially hydrogenated oil.
TRANS FATS NEWS : 28 June 2006
In Canada, a Task Force on trans fats issued its final recommendations as follows:
- For all vegetable oils and soft, spreadable (tub-type) margarines sold to consumers or for use as an ingredient in the preparation of foods on site by retailers or food service establishments, the total trans fat content be limited by regulation to 2 percent of total fat content.
- For all other foods purchased by a retail or food service establishment for sale to consumers or for use as an ingredient in the preparation of foods on site, the total trans fat content be limited by regulation to 5% of total fat content. This limit does not apply to food products for which the fat originates exclusively from ruminant meat or dairy products.
- Regulations be finalized by June 2008.
- A basic phase-in period be set at one year from the date of entry into force of the final regulations.
- Extended phase-in periods be specified for certain applications (e.g. baking) and for small and medium-sized firms, recognizing that in most cases the transition could be made within two years of the date of entry into force of the final regulations.
The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) is publicly supporting the recommendations.
The Task Force was formed in November 2004, after New Democratic Party (NDP) introduced a bill in the Canadian Parliament that would effectively ban trans fats.
As a direct result of the NDP's initiative, Health Canada, the Canadian Government health ministry, announced the formation of a task force to "develop recommendations and strategies for reducing trans fats in Canadian foods to the lowest levels possible."
TRANS FATS NEWS : 19 June 2006
The American Heart Association (AHA) issued its "2006 Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations" which includes recommendations for consumers to minimize their intake of trans fats to less than 1 percent of total calories.
It further recommended that restaurants replace partially hydrogenated oils with other low saturated fat alternatives.
Similarly, the U.S. Government's recommendation in its Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 is "keep trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible."
TRANS FATS NEWS : 13 June 2006
KFC / Kentucky Fried Chicken has been sued by a retired Maryland doctor and, for a second time, by the Center for Science in the Public Interest for its continued use of partially hydrogenated oil, which contains trans fats.
The two are asking that a judge require KFC to either stop using the partially hydrogenated oils or require employees to inform customers of trans fats prior to ordering.
Class action status is also being sought for anyone that has eaten at a certain Washington, D.C. KFC in 2004-2005.
A KFC spokesperson said the company will fight the suit in court, adding that KFC has made its nutrition information available in stores and online “for a very long time.”
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TRANS FATS NEWS : 12 June 2006
This piece of trans fats news is specially highlighted because, well, it is significant. Researchers at Wake Forest University have declared that trans fats are “worse than anticipated”. Among other things, they found that when monkeys were given trans fats in their diet, they gained weight even there was no increase in their calorie intake. Moreover, they gained more weight around the belly. It seems that trans fats not only add new fat to the body, but also moves fat from other areas to the belly. "Trans fat is worse than anticipated," said Wake Forest researcher Lawrence L. Rudel, PhD. "Diets rich in trans fat cause a redistribution of fat tissue into the abdomen and lead to a higher body weight even when the total dietary calories are controlled." The findings were reported at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Washington. Over six years -- equivalent to 20 years in a human life span -- the monkeys that ate unsaturated fats increased their body weight by 1.8 percent. But those that ate trans fats – amounting to 8 percent of the diet – put on 7.2 percent more weight. And, they put on 30 percent more fat in their abdomen. "In the world of diabetes, everybody knows that just 5 percent weight loss makes an enormous difference. This little difference (of weight gain seen in the study) was biologically quite significant,” said Kylie Kavanagh, who presented the findings. “We were shocked,” Kavanagh added. “Despite all our enormous efforts to make sure they didn’t gain weight, they still did. And most of that weight ended up on their tummies. This is walking them straight down the path to diabetes.” Commenting on the latest trans fats news from Wake Forest University, Dariush Mozaffarian at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston said: “This is the first study to show such a dramatic result on abdominal fat. The days of thinking about fats just as calories are over.” |
TRANS FATS NEWS : 12 April 2006
Researchers who studied the trans fat content of fast foods found that the level varies greatly among countries, with the US havng the highest levels. There were even differences among restaurants in the same city.
At McDonald's in New York City, a large serving of french fries and chicken nuggets was found to contain 10.2 g of trans fats. But the same meal in Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic had a mere 3 g. In Denmark, where foods with more than 2 percent trans fats have been banned since 2004, the french fries and chicken nuggets meal contained only 0.3 grams of trans fat.
TRANS FATS NEWS : 10 February 2006
McDonald's has updated its nutritional information which now shows that a large serving of french fries contains 8 grams of trans fats, up from 6 grams previously. The total fat content has been revised upwards to 30 grams, from 25 grams previously.
Press reports said the change came after McDonald's reassessed the nutritional values of its foods in December with a more accurate testing process.
TRANS FATS NEWS : 10 February 2006
The US Foods and Drugs Administration requires that trans fat content be listed on the Nutrition Facts labels of all products with effect 1 January 2006.
Under FDA regulations, "if the serving contains less than 0.5 gram (of trans fat), the content, when declared, shall be expressed as zero."
In Canada, where similar requirements took effect in December 2005, the content of trans fat is expressed as “zero” only when it does not exceed 0.2 grams per serving.
A person in the US may therefore end up consuming several grams of trans fats from eating several servings of food that contain, say, 0.4 grams of trans fats per serving.
For example, five servings of such foods would deliver 2 grams of trans fats. Yet, according to food labels, a person who eats these foods would have consumed “zero” grams of trans fats.
Click here to read trans fats news from September 2006 to 1 January 2007
