A committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded in 2004 that on a gram-for-gram basis, trans fat is even more harmful than saturated fat. That finding encouraged a few food manufacturers to begin replacing this hydrogenated shortening with less-harmful ingredients.
The food industry has until Monday to stop producing foods that contain artificial trans fat—a deadline that comes just over 14 years after the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke partially hydrogenated oil’s regulatory status as safe for use in foods. As a result, the heart-disease-promoting factory-made fat, once ubiquitous in restaurant deep fryers and in pastries, pie crusts, microwave popcorns, margarines and shortenings, and thousands of other packaged foods, is virtually gone from the food supply, according to the nonprofit nutrition and food safety watchdog group.
It's no secret why the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Nutrition Action's publisher, has spent the last 20 years fighting to get trans fat out of the food supply.
Partially hydrogenated oil—the source of artificial trans fat—has been around for more than a century. But it wasn't until the early 1990s that studies produced unequivocal evidence linking it to heart disease in humans.
Marie Callender’s pies, Pop Secret’s microwave popcorns, and Long John Silver’s Breaded Clam Strips all share a little secret: they are among many products that still contain high levels of artificial trans fat.
