Companies cut saturated and trans fats in health drive
products in compliance with FDA legislation due to come into effect
on January 1 2006, writes Jess Halliday , they are reducing
or eliminating them altogether, as part of an effort to show they
are taking concerns over healthy eating seriously.
In its latest Health and Wellness Initiatives survey, the Grocery Manufacturers Association found that the 43 respondent companies have between them introduced almost 4,500 healthier products and sizes since 2002, representing 30 percent of food and beverage SKUs in the average supermarket.
Twenty-eight percent of these were completely new and 72 percent were reformulated with better health in mind.
And the top trend in reformulation was the reduction or elimination of saturated and trans-fats, which was made in 2,995 products.
Trans fat is formed when liquid oils are made into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine, a process that increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. Saturated fats are found in a wide range of foods, including meat products, hard cheese, butter, pastry, cakes and biscuits, and cream.
Both trans and saturated fats have been found to raise the bad (LDL) cholesterol in the blood that increases the risk of heart disease.
Unsaturated fatty acids, on the other hand - both the mono- and poly- varieties - have been linked to lowering of LDL cholesterol.
FDA regulation requiring that food products sold in the US must clearly mark trans fats on the label comes into effect on January 1 2006.
Instead of merely changing the labels and putting their hands up to high trans fat content, it seems that companies are going one step further, changing their formulations to meet growing consumer awareness head on.
According to ACNeilson, US sales of products already labeled 'no trans fat' increased 12 percent to $6.4 billion for the 52 weeks ended October 2, 2004, compared with the previous 52-week period.
But last month fears over the accuracy of trans fat labeling were raised in Florida, when only one food product out of 33 tested was found to be accurately labeled.
"Consumers must be able to rely on the accuracy of food labels," said Florida agriculture and consumer services commissioner Charles Bronson about the finding. "Inaccurate labels can endanger people's health."
Efforts to address other concerns were also seen in the GMA survey, with 969 products of the 4,500 new or reformulated healthy products having reduced calories, 903 with reduced sugar and carbohydrate, 533 fortified with vitamins and minerals and 376 with reduced sodium.
