Josh Falcone – General Assignment Reporter
Jessica Beauvais does her best to avoid foods that contain trans fats. The senior elementary education major said she checks labels to avoid eating anything that includes them.
“I really feel they are harmful,” Beauvais said. “I do look at labels and avoid eating them myself, for example, the frosting that is premade has trans fats and I will make my own frosting now.”
Beauvais may have an easier time avoiding trans fats if the FDA has its way. The FDA recently announced a proposed ban on trans fats to assist in the fight against health concerns in the country.
According to an Associate Press story, many manufacturers have already eliminated many of the trans fats that were found in foods, in large part to repeated criticism from the medical community and even to local laws, such as the ones passed by New York City.
The FDA said that removing the remaining trans fats from food could have a positive effect on the average American’s health and prevent up to 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year in the United States, according to the AP story.
Beauvais said she would be thrilled if the FDA ban on trans fats went into effect.
“I think it’s such a good idea to ban trans fats. They are detrimental for our health and many diseases can come from trans fat,” she said. “Also a lot of labels claim zero trans fat because there is less than .5 percent even though it is listed in the ingredients as partially hydrogenated oils.”
Communications major Dan Jennings, said the ban would be a great concept due to the unhealthiness of trans fats.
“I think it is a great idea as trans fat are so bad for you,” Jennings said, “and most really don’t understand what it does to you. It will be very beneficial as most don’t know even know what it’s in.”
The FDA’s deputy commissioner Michael Taylor told the Associated Press that the FDA does not want to initiate the ban in a way that will cause disorder in any of the food markets, but that the ban is achievable.
“We want to do it in a way that doesn’t unduly disrupt markets,” Taylor said.
The FDA describes trans fats as being used in processed foods and in restaurants to improve the flavor, texture, and shelf life of various foods. Trans fats have already been removed from many products, but they are still part of many baked goods as a helping agent to keep consistency.
Trans fats are created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil to make it more solid which is often called partially hydrogenated oils, according to the FDA, and the agency is not aiming to get rid of the trace amounts of the fat that naturally occur in some dairy and meat products, as they do not believe the small amounts pose a serious health threat.
The FDA’s official report on the proposed ban includes why they feel the proposed ban is necessary, stating, “Part of the FDA’s responsibility to the public is to ensure that food in the American food supply is safe. Therefore, due to the risks associated with consuming PHOs, FDA has issued a Federal Register notice with its preliminary determination that PHOs are no longer ‘generally recognized as safe,’ or GRAS, for short.” The report goes on to say that if the preliminary determination were confirmed, the PHO’s would then be classified as food additives and be subject to premarket approval, and that food additives that are unapproved are considered adulterated under U.S laws and they would not be able to be legally sold.
Senior political science major Christian Spencer, said he believes the government should not be able to tell customers what they can and cannot have when it comes to food.
“The government should allow consumers to make their own choices in regards to what they purchase,” Spencer said. “Food with trans fats are already labeled and allows consumers to make informed decisions.”
Spencer is not alone in his disapproval of the trans fats ban, according to the AP story, a nationwide poll conducted by the Pew Research Center between Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 said that of the 996 adults surveyed, 52 percent of those polled were opposed to a trans fat ban, while 44 percent were in favor of the ban.
Some of the items that would be greatly affected by the ban of trans fats include cookies, snack foods, ready-to-use frostings, frozen pizza, and coffee creamers.
