What the labels may not say

TRANS fats are hidden in thousands of food products in Britain because food manufacturers do not have to include them in labelling.

The Food Standards Agency called yesterday for Britain to follow the US, where manufacturers are legally obliged to label products with the level of trans fats.

Sarah Moore, of the agency, explained that current labelling is confusing: “You can assume there will be trans fats present if partially hydrogenated oils are listed, but very often firms will just say it contains hydrogenated oil. Partially hydrogenated oil or fat is likely to contain trans fats, whilst fully hydrogenated oil or fat is a saturated fat and should not contain trans fats.”

While KFC pledged to phase out partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in the US, on this side of the Atlantic the prospects are not so healthy.

The main fast food chains in Britain have reduced the level of trans fats in frying oil, but the “phantom fat” levels remain. McDonalds, which uses UK-sourced partially hydrogenated 100 per cent rapeseed oil, has managed to reduce trans fats in oil from 30 per cent to 9 per cent since 1999.

Burger King in Britain said that it had already achieved near-zero levels of trans fats in its frying oil used for fries, chicken strippers and onion rings. All burgers are flame grilled.

According to the last National Diet and Nutrition Survey, we eat more trans fats in biscuits, buns, cakes and pastries than through fast food.

Jacobs and McVities no longer use trans fats, but older packets remain on shop shelves. Kellogg’s chocolate caramel Rice Crispies Squares contained 85 per cent of the recommended maximum when tested by Buckinghamshire Country Council this year. Kellogg’s have said they intend to remove hydrogenated vegetable oils from all snack products by the end of this year.

At a branch of Tesco Express in Spitalfields, East London yesterday, a brief survey of the shelves showed Tesco Party Selection cheese twists containing “partially hydrogenated palm oil”, which contains trans fats, and Rustlers Flame Grilled Chicken Sandwich containing “hydrogenated vegetable oil”, which could include trans fats.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk