Trans Fat Bans: Overview

Introduction

In 2006, New York City’s Board of Health made a landmark decision requiring all twenty-four thousand or so restaurants under its jurisdiction to phase out the use of artificial trans fat by the summer of 2008. Trans fats result when food manufacturers transform liquid vegetable oils into solid fats, like shortening and hard margarine. These synthetically engineered fats extend the shelf life of products such as commercially prepared baked goods and enhance the texture of fast foods fried in partially hydrogenated oils.

Many public health officials hailed the board’s decision, citing the doubly dangerous health impact of trans fats, which not only raise levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or the so-called “bad” cholesterol) but also decrease levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or the “good” cholesterol). Officials have implicated the consumption of trans fats as a major cause of obesity.

2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), arguing that artificial trans fats were unsafe to eat, established a new policy that banned manufacturers from adding them to foods and beverages. The FDA gave manufacturers three years to comply, with a deadline of June 18, 2018. When this FDA policy took effect artificial trans fats, with very few exceptions, became illegal across the US.

Replacing such fats with unhydrogenated oils, some experts contend, could prevent as many as one hundred thousand premature deaths from coronary heart disease in the United States each year. Opponents of the ban, who included many restaurant and food industry officials, argued that targeting artificial trans fats while allowing the saturated fat found in meat and dairy products to remain unregulated would render the ban ineffective. The American Council on Science and Health and the American Heart Association agreed with this position and at times expressed opposition to trans fat bans. Officials from those organizations stated that the public health benefits would be negligible, given that most manufacturers would likely replace trans fats with saturated fats, which are also highly unhealthy and are already consumed by the American public in greater amounts than trans fat. The economic impact for manufacturers forced to cut trans fat use must be recognized; trans fats themselves are more cost-effective for producers. Despite these concerns, proponents of a trans fat ban celebrated the FDA's decision to ban trans fats.

For opponents and supporters alike, the ban raised philosophical and pragmatic considerations. Proponents argued that it upholds the public’s right to a safe food supply free of a proven toxin. State and federal mandates, such as the banning of food substances, are, arguably, a legal means by which government tackles serious public health threats for the greater good. Opponents countered that the ban constituted an inappropriate government infringement on the freedom of citizens to make personal choices that, in their view, do not warrant regulation despite the risks.

Understanding the Discussion

High-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol: Also known as the “good cholesterol,” HDL helps the body remove cholesterol from the blood stream through the liver. These proteins increase proportionally with regular physical exercise.

Hydrogenation: An industrial process of adding hydrogen to a liquid oil (such as corn oil) to create hard or semi-solid fats (such as corn oil-based margarine) that help food retain flavor and texture over a longer shelf life.

Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol: Also known as the “bad cholesterol,” LDL is the main source of cholesterol blockage in the arteries. Among a number of factors, sedentary habits and being overweight contribute to increased levels of LDL, as does the types of foods one eats.

Monounsaturated Fats: Fats that are liquid at room temperature, which can raise good cholesterol levels and lower bad cholesterol levels. They are found in plant foods, such as canola, olive, and peanut oils, and also in fish, such as salmon and albacore tuna.

Polyunsaturated Fats: Fats that are liquid at room temperature, which can raise good cholesterol levels and lower bad cholesterol levels. They are found in vegetable oils with the exception of tropical oils such as coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils.

Saturated Fats: Fats that are usually solid at room temperature, which may contribute to increased blood cholesterol levels as well as an increased risk of heart disease. Many animal-based foods contain saturated fats. Such foods include meat, cheese and whole milk. Saturated fats are also found in packaged baked goods; the tropical oils used to create the texture in cookies and other snacks harbor the fats.

Trans Unsaturated Fatty Acids: Small amounts of trans fats occur naturally in the milk and meat of animals such as cows and goats, as well as in some plant foods, including cabbage, pomegranates, and peas. However, most trans fats are produced when liquid vegetable oils are heated with hydrogen and a metal, such as platinum or palladium, which serves as a catalyst. Prior to regulation, trans fats were often used in commercially prepared deep-fried foods, as well as snacks, such as chips and cookies. Studies have shown that trans fats increase the amount of LDL cholesterol while simultaneously decreasing the amount of HDL cholesterol in the body. Trans fats also contribute to the clogging of the arteries, which can lead to coronary heart disease. Additionally, the consumption of trans fats significantly increases a person’s risk for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

History

The discovery of the hydrogenation process occurred in 1897 when French chemist Paul Sabatier (1854-1941) realized that adding hydrogen gas to vegetable oil with a metal catalyst, such as platinum, would transform the liquid oil into a solid fat. Food manufacturers quickly realized that hydrogenated oils did not spoil as quickly as their traditional counterparts and were easier to manufacture, package, and distribute.

During the first half of the twentieth century, partially hydrogenated oils became staple ingredients in commercially processed baked goods and snack foods. The scarcity of commodities such as butter during World War I, World War II, and the Great Depression encouraged the popularity of cheaper, more readily available alternatives such as margarine and shortening.

The use of trans fats increased dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century as a fast-food culture took hold in the United States. Ironically, hydrogenated oils eventually came to be perceived as a healthier alternative to beef tallow—the fat in which doughnuts and potatoes were fried at most chain outlets well into the 1980s—or butter or lard, the other two most popular fats. Nonetheless, some researchers suspected as early as the 1960s that trans fats, despite their derivation from plants, rather than animal sources, might increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The theory remained controversial for many years. Until the late 1980s there was insufficient or conflicting data to definitively target trans fats as a cardiac health hazard. By the 1990s, studies conducted at Harvard University and other major research institutions had established compelling evidence of the dangers of trans fats. The well-known longitudinal research study out of Harvard School of Public Health which began in the early 1980s has tracked over seventy-five thousand women who had no heart disease at the beginning of the study.

In 2005, statistically significant findings confirmed a direct relationship between trans-fat intake and coronary heart disease; most worrisome were specific such findings in younger women. By the end of that decade, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made its first proposal to require trans fat information in the labeling of packaged foods. In 2003, the FDA turned its proposal into a mandate scheduled to go into effect within three years. In addition, early studies are pointing to a potential correlation between trans fatty acid ingestion and diabetes. A smaller, more recent study, which attempted to measure insulin function after high-fat meals; insulin is a hormone produced by the body to lower blood glucose. These findings were suggestive (not definitive) that insulin sensitivity—the body’s favorable response to food intake—is greater when the meal’s fat proportion contains higher amounts of monounsaturated fat to saturated fats. These findings may also point to a relationship to less healthy fat intake and type 2 diabetes; also known as adult-onset diabetes.

In 2004, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy organization, filed a petition with the FDA to ban partially hydrogenated oils. Although the FDA did not take action on that petition, in that same year, the groundwork for local bans on trans fats was laid in Tiburon, a small, affluent community located on San Francisco Bay. In 2004, all eighteen of the town’s eating establishments voluntarily stopped using trans fats, on the heels of a campaign led by a local attorney and lobbyist who had previously brought successful lawsuits against Kraft Foods and McDonald’s over their use of trans fats. Project Tiburon, as the effort was known, quickly attracted national publicity. It came to serve as a model for other cities, states, and school districts seeking to implement either voluntary or mandatory trans fat bans.

Among those who consulted with Project Tiburon representatives were New York City officials who, in 2006, announced the planned phase-in of the nation’s first legal ban on trans fats. Restaurant owners were given six months to ensure that all oils, shortenings, and margarines used in their establishments contained less than half of one gram of artificial trans fat per serving. Oils and shortening used to deep-fry yeast dough and cake batter were exempted from this preliminary requirement, but only temporarily; the methods of preparing such foods were required to adhere to the ban by July 2008.

In 2006, under growing pressure from public health officials and consumer advocacy groups, the FDA implemented a new requirement that nutrition labels on all packaged foods sold in the United States include trans fat content information. In anticipation of the new labeling requirements, many large US food manufacturers—including such giants as Kraft Foods and the J.M. Smucker Company, which makes Crisco—reformulated their products to reduce or eliminate trans fats in the two years before the labeling requirement took effect.

Throughout 2006 and 2007, many fast-food and restaurant chains, including Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Wendy’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Denny’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Starbucks, eliminated or pledged to eliminate trans fats from their menus. McDonald’s also announced plans to begin using trans-fat-free oil for all its fried menu items by early 2008.

Fueling the publicity surrounding existing and projected bans was the 2007 spring launch of the American Heart Association’s “Face the Fats” public awareness campaign, a part of which aims to educate children about the dangers of trans fats. The creation of animated segments depicting the conspiracy of the “Bad Fats Brothers,” named “Trans” and “Sat,” who “break your heart” were funded, as was the rest of the campaign, with $7 million paid by McDonald’s as part of its settlement of the 2003 litigation filed against it for misleading customers into believing that it had switched to a lower trans fat cooking oil. Pediatricians, following recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, are recognizing that the nation faces an obesity epidemic in its children, portending a future of unhealthy adults with costly and lifelong chronic disease sequelae. Causes include school menus, fast food, and children’s diet as a cornerstone to this national health crisis. Food labeling and decreasing trans fats from children’s diets will play a pivotal role in the country’s future health and medical costs.

Following New York City’s lead, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also enacted a ban on the use of trans fats in the city’s eating establishments in late 2007. Other municipalities and counties in Maryland and Washington State, Connecticut, and New York State enacted similar regulations, while others remained in the process of attempting to follow suit. Measures were under consideration in cities, counties, and school districts in a growing number of states, including Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

In the summer of 2007, a bill to ban trans fats in all of California passed the state assembly by a two-to-one margin and subsequently became law, effective on January 1, 2010, and targeted oil, shortening, and margarine at first, and then expanded to include any food containing trans fat within a food facility. Exemptions were granted to public school cafeterias and foods sealed in the manufacturers’ original packaging. In May 2012 Colorado passed a ban on industrially produced trans fat in public school food.

Massachusetts state restaurant industry officials announced in July 2007 that they did not plan to oppose a ban under consideration by the Massachusetts legislature; the likelihood of the bill’s passage greatly increased. The bill, which banned the use of trans fats by restaurants, passed the Massachusetts State House on June 4, 2008, but did not pass the state senate. Within Massachusetts, municipal regulations restricting or banning trans fats were in place in Boston, Chelsea, Lynn, Needham, Cambridge, and Brookline. In January 2013 Chelsea became the first US city to ban any amount of trans fat as an ingredient.

Trans Fats Bans Today

By the mid-2010s, public health officials began hoping that the trend toward banning trans fats in restaurants would ultimately lead to their elimination from the American diet altogether. In November 2013 the FDA made a tentative determination that partially hydrogenated oils were not Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS). Following solicitation of public comments and extensive research, in June 2015 the FDA made a final determination that partially hydrogenated oils were not GRAS. Therefore, the FDA also ruled at that time that all food manufacturers would need to remove partially hydrogenated oils from their products by 2018. Companies were allowed to appeal to the FDA for special exceptions to include the oil, but they were forbidden from adding it to any products without first getting approval from the FDA. In its justification, the FDA estimated that the removal of partially hydrogenated oils from processed foods could help prevent thousands of heart attacks per year.

The FDA ban took effect, with some extensions granted for special circumstances, on June 18, 2018. At that time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that eliminating trans fats from the US food supply could prevent 20,000 coronary events such as heart attacks, including 7,000 deaths from heart-related causes, every year in the US. By January 2021, which was the final compliance date for manufacturers to adhere to the FDA ban, trans fats had effectively been eliminated from the US food supply. However, it was still legal for trace amounts of trans fats (less than .5 grams per serving) to remain present in some foods.

These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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