The Government's Battle Against Trans FatBy Peter Liu [Nutrition & Diet]
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How close are we to the government recommended reduction in trans fats? Peter Liu unclogs a new update on how fat foods are in Canada.  The ongoing battle to eliminate trans fat from foods in Canada has been slow to reveal huge gains, but small progresses have been made in a wide area of the food industry. In partnership with Health Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the federal government’s Trans Fat Monitoring Program recently released its second set of data regarding levels of trans fat in our food. Samples taken from restaurants and brand name pre-packaged foods were analyzed to determine their total fat content, compared with previous content and the recommendations for trans fat put out by Health Canada. The first set of data was released in December 2007 and now it’s time for progress report number two.Uphill Victory In June 2007, Health Canada made the push to persuade Canadian food manufacturers to cut trans fat in their foods within a two-year span. Health Minister Tony Clement even warns of federal regulations that will forcibly eradicate trans fat from foods if the food industry cannot do it themselves by the end of 2009. The government is calling on food industries to meet their recommendations to limit trans fat to 2 per cent of the total fat content for all vegetable oils and soft margarine and to limit trans fat to 5 per cent of the total fat content for all other foods, including ingredients sold to restaurants. The latest report on trans fat levels in our food has revealed that the fast food sector has had some success with reducing trans fat from their menu items such as fries and chicken. The last trans fat monitoring report pegged Burger King with some of the highest trans fat levels in the fast food industry, but Burger King has since then reduced total fat levels in many of their food items. However, several soft margarine companies and doughnut chains continue to pump their products with high levels of trans fat. Margarines like Golden Gate Soya Oil, Golden Gate Canola Oil and Chefmaster Soft Tub all have high trans fat levels, while doughnut chains like Dunkin’ Donuts and Coffee Time still serve high fat products. Misplaced Relief The statistics offered up by this latest trans fat monitoring report certainly make the fast food industry sound like little angels, each chain making huge efforts to reduce trans fat levels in their menu, but the method by which the trans fat report selected and analyzed food items is confusing. Predominantly testing and showing trans fat reduction in fries, chicken, fish products and pizza in family restaurants and fast food chains does not paint a full picture of the present difficulties concerning trans fat. For example, the statistics in the report for trans fat levels in french fries were cultivated between 2006 and 2008. Having sampled fries from 37 fast food chains and family restaurants, it was determined that 78 per cent of those places now serve fries that meet the government recommendation of 5 per cent trans fat of the total fat level. From the same report, statistics for pizza sampled from restaurants and fast food came from only five places, which all meet the government limitation of 5 per cent trans fat of the total fat content. Products sampled for the trans fat monitoring report outside of fries, chicken and fish included garlic breads and spreads, soft and hard margarines, vegetable shortening and lard, pizzas, pizza dipping sauces, frozen pizzas, onion rings, doughnuts and miscellaneous fast food menu items (such as apple pie). No matter how reduced the trans fat levels seem to be, it nevertheless remains that these foods still have a high trans fat level to begin with and even though food industries have made small successes in the past year, there is still an obesity epidemic to take care of. There also exists a general argument of whether or not this monitoring program reduces trans fat levels in Canadian foods effectively enough. One side is of the opinion that food industries have taken significant strides to reduce trans fat levels in such a short while, while the other side believes these gains are too little to be of consequence. They believe that the government should step in and stringently eradicate trans fat from the Canadian diet and stop allowing major food industries to control government food policy and have a say in how foods are manufactured for our diet. _______________________________ |
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