F.D.A. Requires Food Labels to Reveal a Lesser-Known Fat

MARIAN BURROS / NY Times 9jul03

After more than a decade of debate, the Food and Drug Administration said today that it would require food processors to include the amount of artery-clogging trans fatty acids on the nutrition label. That action could have implications far beyond the labeling of snack foods.

Manufacturers have until Jan. 1, 2006, to include the information on the nutrition label, where it will appear just below information on saturated fat.

The F.D.A. estimates that the change in regulations "will save between $900 million and $1.8 billion a year in medical costs, lost productivity and pain and suffering."

Food processors have generally agreed that such labeling is a good idea and a few already provide the information on the nutrition facts label. But nutrition labeling does not cover restaurants, and one prominent researcher suggests that if restaurants fail to provide information about trans fatty acids, they may be leaving themselves open to lawsuits.

"This is only the first step," said Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The real solution is to take trans fats out of products all together, like Frito-Lay has done with most of its products, and they have done in Europe. Trans fat labeling will provide a lot of incentive for manufacturers."

But Dr. Willett added: "The big gap is fast-food and casual restaurants. If people eat foods high in trans fat and there is no warning label and then they have a heart attack at some point, there has to be legal liability. Saturated fat is different because it is naturally part of many foods. Trans fats are being actively added and people are being deceived, I think. Lawyers are going to have an interesting time. The main defense of the smoking industry now is that there is a warning label, and there is no warning labeling on trans fats."

Trans fats are at least as bad as saturated fat, and some scientists think they are worse. Unlike any other fat, they not only raise the level of low-density lipoproteins — what is called bad cholesterol — they may also raise triglycerides and lower the level of high-density lipoproteins — what is called good cholesterol.

Last year, the National Academy of Sciences said the level of trans fats in the diet should be as low as possible. Even as little as 2 or 3 grams of trans fat a day can increase the health risk. A glazed doughnut typically has 4 grams of trans fat.

In the long-running Nurses Health Study, there was a 50 percent increase in the heart attack rate among women who ate the greatest amount of trans fats compared with those who consumed the least.

Trans fats are created when vegetable oil has been partially hydrogenated, solidifying it and increasing the shelf life of certain products.

If a product contains partially hydrogenated oils or vegetable shortening, it may contain trans fats, which are ubiquitous in snack foods and baked goods as well as in many of the foods served at fast-food and casual-dining or family-style restaurants. But short of laboratory analysis, there has been no way of knowing how much a serving contains.

The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Mark McClellan, was asked today if the agency would consider a regulation to require restaurants to provide nutrition information for their patrons.

"We certainly have been talking with the restaurant industry about further steps they can take to help people eat healthier diets," he said, but he refused to say whether nutrition information would be one of them.

In 2002, to great fanfare, McDonald's announced that it would switch from cooking its french fries in a partially hydrogenated oil to a type that contained no trans fats, but the company has yet to do so.

Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said of McDonald's, "It's shameful they announced they were changing their oil as if it were happening immediately, and then quietly reneged on it instead of waiting until new french fries are in the stores."

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said the company was still working on a formula for a new oil, but that its french fries have "among the lowest trans fatty acid levels" in the fast-food industry. The spokeswoman, Anna Rozenich, also said that the company provides nutrition information in brochures and on its Web site.

Dr. Wootan, whose group petitioned the F.D.A. almost a decade ago to require trans fat labeling, said there are alternative fats on the market that contain either fewer trans fats or no trans fats and that can be used for frying and for products that need solid fat, like cookies. They are more expensive, she said, but when more companies start to use them, the price will come down.

Several food companies have already removed the trans fats from their products. Several margarine products from Unilever Bestfoods, including Promise, Take Control and Shedd's Country Crock, are now made without trans fats, and the company announced today that next year its I Can't Believe It's Not Butter line would also be trans fat free.

Frito-Lay recently began including trans fat information on labels for its foods, 88 percent of which are now trans fat free. Many other chip makers use oils that are free of trans fats, but they do not list that information on their labels.

The label for Newman's Own popcorn says that product does not contain trans fatty acids, but it is made with a highly saturated fat, palm oil.

The F.D.A. also announced today that it was seeking comments on how to put information about trans fats in the better context of a daily diet, to make it more useful to people.

Dr. Wootan has suggested that the F.D.A. follow the Canadian government's model for nutrition labels. The daily value for both saturated fat and trans fats is combined to help people look at one number for all heart damaging fat.

"We worry that people will focus more on trans fat because it's new and will try to avoid every bit of trans fat even if it means eating more saturated fat," she said. "This is all about heart disease, and it's the biggest killer of men and women in this country. People are focused so much on obesity these days, but there are other things about diet that matter."