Updated Nov. 7, 2013 2:29 p.m. ET
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ruled for the first time that trans fats aren't generally considered safe in foods, a sharp shift in policy that could lead to a ban on a substance blamed for contributing to heart attacks and strokes.
The move capped a growing movement against trans fats that has included bans in New York City, Seattle and elsewhere. Major food makers and restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp. have pledged in recent years to avoid trans fats, which are found in some baked goods, refrigerated dough products, frosting and other foods.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ruled for the first time that trans fats aren't considered safe in food, a sharp policy shift that could lead to banning trans fats in baked goods and other foods. Peter Landers reports. Photo: Getty Images.
"While consumption of potentially harmful artificial trans fat has declined over the last two decades in the United States, current intake remains a significant public-health concern," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg. She said further reductions in trans fats could prevent an additional 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year in the U.S.
Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated fats or oils, are created when food-ingredient makers add hydrogen to vegetable oil to make it solid. The process, first used a century ago, extends the shelf life of certain food products, helping baked goods retain their flakiness and fried foods their crispiness.
Michael Taylor, the FDA's top food official, said that the substance is particularly useful in making certain products such as commercial cake icing.
The agency said it would give food companies and other interested parties 60 days to comment on the proposed action. At some point after that, the FDA will make a final ruling.
While the comment period will give food companies a chance to shape the FDA's thinking about how long it will take to remove trans fats from most products, Dr. Hamburg and Mr. Taylor seemed adamant about their general direction: the ultimate removal of trans fats from the American food supply.
"This is a reasonable action to lower the risk of disease and, even today, this is an aggressive action," said cardiologist Alan Kadish, president and chief executive of New York-based Touro College System. "There's a meaningful debate about the extent of the risk, but most scientists agree there is some increased risk of cardiovascular disease" with trans fats.
While some trans fats can be found naturally in animal products such as milk and meat, most consumption comes from artificially created sources. The fats are linked to higher LDL in the blood, or "bad" cholesterol.
Decades ago, trans fats, which are a form of unsaturated fat and often were found in margarine, were promoted as a more healthful alternative to saturated animal fats used in food, such as lard and butter. But in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers began linking trans fats to heart disease.
An influential 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine, an advisory body that is part of the National Academies, put the danger in stark terms, saying people should eat as little trans fat as possible.
"Because they are not essential and provide no known health benefit, there is no safe level of trans fatty acids," the report said. However, it called an all-out ban "impractical" at the time because so many foods had trans fats.
When it became clear in the mid-2000s that the FDA was planning to require food makers to disclose the presence of trans fat in foods, restaurant chains and food manufacturers began phasing them out. By the time the trans fat labeling law took effect in 2006, many food makers had already started switching to oils that didn't contain partially hydrogenated oil.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association says that since 2005, food makers have lowered the amount of trans fats in food products by more than 73%.
Studies have shown that a ban on the ingredient in restaurants in New York City has been effective in lowering trans fat consumption in diets. The city's ban, which took effect in 2007, has been regarded as influential in shaping thinking nationally. It was one of the public-health initiatives of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who ran into court opposition more recently with his bid to stop restaurants from selling sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces.
In 2008, McDonald's completed its changeover to cooking oil with no trans fat, saying it would cook french fries, hash browns and other items in a blend of canola, corn and soybean oils. Most other fast-food chains, once big users of trans fat, also have stopped using it.
The FDA never ruled officially that trans fats were safe. It simply didn't generally challenge that assertion when it was made over three decades by food companies that used trans fats.
Euromonitor International, a research firm, estimates that U.S. consumption of hydrogenated vegetable oils this year will total 220,203 metric tons, down from 719,159 tons in 2000.
Still, Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which opposes trans fats, said eliminating the remaining use may not be simple. "The easy changes were made, which got rid of almost 75% of trans fat, but there's this remaining level in food made by companies that either don't care about the issue or ran into problems reformulating the products," he said.
In July, Mr. Jacobson's group discovered high levels of trans fats in some items sold at Long John Silver's restaurants. The chain's "Big Catch" meal, consisting of fried fish, hush puppies and onion rings, contained 33 grams of trans fats, the center found.
Long John Silver's subsequently said it would get rid of trans fats in all of its U.S. restaurants by the end of the year.
Write to Thomas M. Burton at [email protected] and Julie Jargon at [email protected]
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ruled for the first time that trans fats aren't generally considered safe in foods, a sharp shift in policy that could lead to a ban on a substance blamed for contributing to heart attacks and strokes.
The move capped a growing movement against trans fats that has included bans in New York City, Seattle and elsewhere. Major food makers and restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp. have pledged in recent years to avoid trans fats, which are found in some baked goods, refrigerated dough products, frosting and other foods.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ruled for the first time that trans fats aren't considered safe in food, a sharp policy shift that could lead to banning trans fats in baked goods and other foods. Peter Landers reports. Photo: Getty Images.
"While consumption of potentially harmful artificial trans fat has declined over the last two decades in the United States, current intake remains a significant public-health concern," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg. She said further reductions in trans fats could prevent an additional 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year in the U.S.
Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated fats or oils, are created when food-ingredient makers add hydrogen to vegetable oil to make it solid. The process, first used a century ago, extends the shelf life of certain food products, helping baked goods retain their flakiness and fried foods their crispiness.
Michael Taylor, the FDA's top food official, said that the substance is particularly useful in making certain products such as commercial cake icing.
The agency said it would give food companies and other interested parties 60 days to comment on the proposed action. At some point after that, the FDA will make a final ruling.
While the comment period will give food companies a chance to shape the FDA's thinking about how long it will take to remove trans fats from most products, Dr. Hamburg and Mr. Taylor seemed adamant about their general direction: the ultimate removal of trans fats from the American food supply.
"This is a reasonable action to lower the risk of disease and, even today, this is an aggressive action," said cardiologist Alan Kadish, president and chief executive of New York-based Touro College System. "There's a meaningful debate about the extent of the risk, but most scientists agree there is some increased risk of cardiovascular disease" with trans fats.
While some trans fats can be found naturally in animal products such as milk and meat, most consumption comes from artificially created sources. The fats are linked to higher LDL in the blood, or "bad" cholesterol.
Decades ago, trans fats, which are a form of unsaturated fat and often were found in margarine, were promoted as a more healthful alternative to saturated animal fats used in food, such as lard and butter. But in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers began linking trans fats to heart disease.
An influential 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine, an advisory body that is part of the National Academies, put the danger in stark terms, saying people should eat as little trans fat as possible.
"Because they are not essential and provide no known health benefit, there is no safe level of trans fatty acids," the report said. However, it called an all-out ban "impractical" at the time because so many foods had trans fats.
When it became clear in the mid-2000s that the FDA was planning to require food makers to disclose the presence of trans fat in foods, restaurant chains and food manufacturers began phasing them out. By the time the trans fat labeling law took effect in 2006, many food makers had already started switching to oils that didn't contain partially hydrogenated oil.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association says that since 2005, food makers have lowered the amount of trans fats in food products by more than 73%.
Studies have shown that a ban on the ingredient in restaurants in New York City has been effective in lowering trans fat consumption in diets. The city's ban, which took effect in 2007, has been regarded as influential in shaping thinking nationally. It was one of the public-health initiatives of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who ran into court opposition more recently with his bid to stop restaurants from selling sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces.
In 2008, McDonald's completed its changeover to cooking oil with no trans fat, saying it would cook french fries, hash browns and other items in a blend of canola, corn and soybean oils. Most other fast-food chains, once big users of trans fat, also have stopped using it.
The FDA never ruled officially that trans fats were safe. It simply didn't generally challenge that assertion when it was made over three decades by food companies that used trans fats.
Euromonitor International, a research firm, estimates that U.S. consumption of hydrogenated vegetable oils this year will total 220,203 metric tons, down from 719,159 tons in 2000.
Still, Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which opposes trans fats, said eliminating the remaining use may not be simple. "The easy changes were made, which got rid of almost 75% of trans fat, but there's this remaining level in food made by companies that either don't care about the issue or ran into problems reformulating the products," he said.
In July, Mr. Jacobson's group discovered high levels of trans fats in some items sold at Long John Silver's restaurants. The chain's "Big Catch" meal, consisting of fried fish, hush puppies and onion rings, contained 33 grams of trans fats, the center found.
Long John Silver's subsequently said it would get rid of trans fats in all of its U.S. restaurants by the end of the year.
Write to Thomas M. Burton at [email protected] and Julie Jargon at [email protected]