Have you ever noticed that even though a label may say there are zero grams of trans fat, you see in the ingredients that there is some form of hydrogenated oils? How could this be?
The reasoning is simple. As of Jan. 1, 2006, the FDA required food companies to list trans fat content separately on the Nutrition Facts panel of all packaged foods. This way consumers can easily see how much trans fats are in the foods they choose. Awesome.
However, food and beverage companies only have to list the trans fat amounts if one serving has 0.5 gram or more. Therefore, we should be aware that just because we see zero trans fat on the label of the product, this does not mean that the product is trans free. Don't be too worried because while there may be a trace amount of trans fat in each serving, researchers have found that the amount of partially hydrogenated oil is so small that trans fat content is nutritionally insignificant, unless large amounts of the food are consumed.
Madeleine Thompson
Barbara Bui
Pedro Garcia
Tha'ts awful - a good reason to steer clear of mainstream packaged foods.
1awww but if its so little, its fine right?? LOL
2What I don't understand is how the Ban is going to affect store-bought foods. You would think all these companies would try to get away from using them. Even Frito-Lay jumped on the bandwagon!!
I made my kids Lego Eggos (hehe) last week - 2g PER SERVING! Also, almost everything I buy (Yes, I buy a lot of packaged foods) says zero, but lists PH oils. So...probably not too good.
I was also wondering about FULLY hydrogenated oil...whatever I'm thinking of had zero grams listed, but had this ingredient.
3Butryfly, The rule applies for hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils.
4i've heard that they haven't found a level of trans fat consumption that is healthy at all. so that 0.5 grams is small, sure, but it's still clogging your arteries. imagine all the trans fat that you're consuming when you eat foods labeled with 0 grams trans fat, when in reality they have 0.5 grams. i just read my labels and stay AWAY from hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils altogether. or i'll make my own food (thanks yumsugar) so i know that what i'm eating doesn't have trans fats.
5i buy my food from Sainsbury's UK supermarket and they are quite frank about food labeling, and they put trace instead of 0
6So, am I the only one confused here?
Looking at the sample nutrition label featured above, it states a total of 13 grams of fat, of which presumably less than 0.5 grams consist of trans fat and around 4 grams consist of saturated fat.
What about the other 9 grams of fat? Are we to assume that those are a blend of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat that the manufacturer was just too lazy to clearly identify?
Or is there yet another form of fat around for which there is not yet a labeling requirement, similar to trans fat a few years ago?
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