Trans fat on food labels

Sneaking In The Trans Fat

And then there’s the question of “Who can you trust?”

In response to last week’s e-Alert “Doing the Math” (11/12/03) I received this question from an HSI member named Brinda:

“I just purchased a snack food which had ‘tran fat – 0g,’ but the total fat was 10g; saturated fat 1.5g; that still leaves 8.5g unaccounted for. I also checked the ingredients and they had “partially hydrogenated soybean oil” listed toward the end of the list of ingredients; does this mean that this particular snack food has a true tran fat count?”

Brinda’s snack may be telling a little fib.

If you see the word “hydrogenated” near the bottom of the ingredient list, then there’s a good chance that the trans fat content is low. But without the listing for monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (which are not required for all nutrition panels) it’s impossible to tell the trans fat total. As a rule of thumb, if “hydrogenated” appears in the ingredient list, then you’re getting at least a trace of trans fat, and maybe quite a bit more than a trace.

So I can’t say that Brinda can completely trust her snack’s claim of zero trans fat.

And that helps illustrate another problem behind the MEAL bill. If MEAL becomes law, you’ll see a listing for trans fat beside each menu item. But can it be trusted? You’re depending on the management of restaurant chains, individual managers of restaurants, food supply companies, cooks, and other food handlers to stay within some very narrow parameters in determining the trans fat total of every serving.

So estimating trans fat content of prepared food will be guesstimating at best. You’ll be getting a “ballpark” figure. And this potential for wide-ranging inaccuracy is another reason why the MEAL bill is a bust.

To Your Good Health, and Go Ravens!

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute