News from the FDA on Trans Fat

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a phase-out of a harmful class of ingredients to reduce the amount of damaging trans fat in your family’s food.

Over the next three years, food companies must remove partially hydrogenated oils  from their products.

These oils are added to processed foods to maintain their taste and texture over time in the market or pantry. They’re also a major source of trans fat,  which clogs arteries and contributes to heart disease.

Despite the FDA’s positive step forward, parents who check food labels for nutrition information like calories, sodium and sugar may be missing a crucial stat. The new ruling keeps in place a regulatory loophole: if a food product contains less than half a gram of trans fat, that number can be rounded down to zero on the label.

This misleading calculation means your family may be eating unknown amounts of trans fat—particularly troubling for kids, whose calorie needs are lower, leaving them less room in their diets for this harmful ingredient.

The good news is that some companies have already begun the important work of eliminating trans fat from their products.

Visit the EWG Trans Fat report to learn more about where trans fats are hiding in your family’s food.

Read the full story here.

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