New food labels may not solve trans problem

Consumers will soon start getting a clearer idea of how much some of their food may be harming their health -- thanks to new nutrition labels coming into effect in North America by early 2006.

In a long awaited move, governments in Canada and the U.S. will start requiring food makers to list on their labels the amount of harmful trans fats in their products. But some wonder if it's taken too long to get the new labelling, and they point to Denmark, which has gone one step further.

At the moment, the only way a consumer can find out whether their foods contain trans fat is to look at the fine print and find the words "hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils" or "vegetable oil shortening and/or margarine."

Only then can they learn whether the item contains the fat that scientists say is at least twice as unhealthy as saturated animal fats.

New laws from Health Canada will mandate comprehensive nutrition labelling to list a food item's trans fat, starting in the middle of December, 2005. The U.S. will follow in January, 2006. But Health Canada's Dr. Margaret Cheney, chief, Nutrition Evaluation Division, isn't sure that all consumers will understand what they're reading.

"I think there might need to be quite a bit of education in the public as to what trans fats really are," says Cheney.

FAQ: With tips on how you can avoid trans fat.

Others wonder what took so long for the new labels. Health Canada has known about health problems associated with trans since 1980. And the agency was warned again in 1995, when a food industry panel said trans should be labelled on food products.

"They thought the public would be increasingly concerned about the question about trans fatty acids," says food industry consultant Ted Mag.

Even now, it will be another two years before those labels are on all our processed food products. That's because Health Canada is giving food makers lots of time to, among other things, use up their inventory of old packaging.

In Denmark, some experts think North American regulators still have it wrong -- instead of changing labelling rules, they should consider cutting trans fat from industrially-made food products.

"It's been cited by industry that people won't read labels, and -- when they do read them -- they will not necessarily understand these labels. That is a problem," says Dr. Steed Stender, the head of the Danish Nutrition Council.

Stender says the council was concerned about the growing evidence that trans was linked to cardiovascular disease, and possibly even stunting fetal growth. So they recommended that trans fat be virtually eliminated from the food supply.

"Instead of warning consumers about trans and telling them what it is, we've simply removed it," he says.

As for the Canadian and U.S. governments' approach, Stender has strong words.

"As they say in North America: 'You can put poison in food, if you label it properly.' Here in Denmark, we remove the poison and people don't have to know anything about trans fatty acids," he says.

Health Canada's Cheney says that approach just won't work here. "I think we should allow industry to go with the labelling, and see how it goes."

That means consumers have a lot to learn -- fast -- about trans, its effects on our health, and where is lurks in our food.