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Packaged-Food Labels Now Required to Mention Trans Fat, Allergens

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 06:00 CST

By Elizabeth Weise

New federal rules for packaged foods promise to open consumers' eyes to ingredients that could trigger serious allergies or contribute to heart disease.

The labels, which became mandatory on Jan. 1, already have pushed foodmakers to reduce some of those potentially hazardous ingredients out of fear that consumers will recoil at the new information. That's according to consumer advocates and nutritionists who pushed for the changes.

From now on, the labels will list the amount of heart-unhealthy trans fat and the presence of eight major potential allergens.

"These changes will saves thousands of lives every year," says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which first petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require trans fat labeling in 1993.

New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle says the prospect of having to list these fats has forced food producers to stop using partially hydrogenated oils, the primary source.

Vegetable oil is hydrogenated when the liquid oil is heated in the presence of a catalyst, often a metal such as nickel or platinum, while hydrogen is bubbled through it. It is used in processed foods because it is chemically more like animal fat, more solid and less likely to go rancid. That makes it perfect for frying and industrial baking.

Consumers must still monitor their intake of processed foods, Nestle says. "The labels are allowed to say zero if trans fats are half a gram or less per serving, which means that grams can add up if people eat a lot."

One loophole Jacobson notes is that restaurants aren't required to list the trans fats in their foods. But he's confident that eventually every use of partially hydrogenated oil will be replaced. "Denmark has in effect banned partially hydrogenated oil; Canada is considering it. The United States ought to do the same," he says.

The labeling change is "based on scientific evidence that trans fat intake is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease," says Barbara Schneeman, director of the FDA's Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling and Dietary Supplements.

The trans fat labeling rule was announced in July 2003, so companies have spent the past three years reformulating many products to have a better "fat profile," says Stephanie Childs of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

"It's given companies a new incentive to reformulate their product. They've reduced or eliminated trans fats, increased polyunsaturated fats and lowered saturated fats," Childs says. Saturated fats, which are found primarily in animal products, have been linked to heart disease.

The allergens to be listed are tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, peanuts, soybeans and wheat. Together, these make up 90% of all food allergies in the USA.

Many of them had been voluntarily listed but often under confusing technical names such as casein and whey, both milk products.

"If you're a parent and you have an allergic child, you may know all the names of all milk-derived ingredients, but a child may not. So the plain English wording provides simple wording so they can understand it," Childs says. The FDA estimates that 2% to 5% of children have food allergies.

More label changes are coming. The FDA is considering new rules to require more realistic calorie counts, including giving calories for the entire package, not just a single serving, as well as printing calorie numbers in larger type.

The agency is also in the process of recomputing daily dietary values for vitamins and other nutrients. Many of the values currently used go back to 1968, Schneeman says.

(c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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