FDA to force food labels to reveal artery-clogging trans fat

WASHINGTON -- Consumers are about to get a better idea of just how unhealthy some brands of potato chips, cookies, even margarines really are: Food labels will soon be required to reveal how much artery-clogging trans fat they contain.

Trans fat helps make such foods as doughnuts, french fries, crackers and fried chicken taste good. But it's at least as dangerous to the heart as its better-known cousin, saturated fat -- and many doctors consider it worse. Yet today, consumers have no way of knowing how much trans fat they eat.

Under regulations to be announced by the Food and Drug Administration Wednesday, that will change.

The nutrition label will get a new line listing the amount of trans fat in each food under the amount of saturated fat it contains, say consumer advocates and industry representatives familiar with FDA's decision. Adding the two lines will show the total of heart-risky fats in every serving.

"It's a good first step," said Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which petitioned the FDA 10 years ago to make the change. "People will be able to compare different products and determine which ones are worse for their hearts."

But Wootan said the comparisons won't be easy. The labels won't tell consumers how much a candy bar or doughnut counts against their daily allotment of unhealthy fat.

Nor will they bear a message FDA debated this spring -- that trans fat consumption should be as low as possible.

For weeks, FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan has promised the change, first proposed in 1999, although agency officials wouldn't comment Tuesday.

But the FDA has estimated that merely revealing trans fat content on labels would save between 2,000 and 5,600 lives a year, as people either chose healthier foods or manufacturers changed their recipes to leave out the damaging ingredient.

Food companies already are preparing. Frito-Lay has announced it is eliminating trans fat from its popular Doritos, Tostitos and Cheetos, and became the first major manufacturer to voluntarily begin adding trans fat content to the labels of other brands earlier this year.

Although the FDA will allow companies to phase in the switch, consumers can expect to see many revealing trans fat content within just a few months, said Tim Willard of the National Food Processors Association.

"Clearly this is going to be a major change to food labels, and it's going to help consumers who are seeking information about trans fat content of foods to find it," he said.

Saturated fat is found primarily in meat and other products containing animal fat. People are advised to eat no more than 20 grams a day, about 10 percent of calories.

Some surveys suggest trans fat comprises up to another 10 percent. Both types can increase the risk of heart disease, although some research suggests trans fat may be the worst culprit.

Trans fat is in numerous products, from meats and dairy products to pastries. The most common source is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, where liquid oil is turned into a solid to protect against spoiling and maintain flavor.

Typically, the harder a margarine or cooking fat, the more trans fat it includes. Soft, spreadable margarine in tubs, for instance, contains little if any trans fat, while stick margarine can contain a lot. In other foods, the only way consumers could tell which contained trans fat was to check the ingredient list for the word "hydrogenated."

The National Academy of Sciences, which sets nutrition levels, ruled last year that while eating some trans fat may be unavoidable, there is no safe level that it could set as an upper limit. So while product labels today list what percent of total calories a food offers in saturated fat, the new trans fat labels won't.

Consequently, the FDA considered putting a footnote on labels recommending eating only a little trans fat. But consumer testing found that had the unintended consequence of scaring people back to foods high in saturated fat, said Stephanie Childs of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, which lobbied against the move.

For now, the FDA plans to do more research on how to educate consumers about heart-damaging fats so that they make better food choices, Childs said.