Why is everyone worried about trans fats?

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Why is everyone worried about trans fats?

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A movie called “200 Pounds Beauty” was the top box-office draw among Korean films at the start of 2007. It is about an obese girl with a beautiful voice and great singing talent who can’t appear on stage because of her looks. Instead, she becomes a lip-sync vocalist, singing behind the curtain for a popular performer who can’t sing. She finally goes through extensive surgery on her body to win the heart of a music producer she has a crush on. The girl, now with a hot body and a beautiful face, goes through some ups and downs but soon wins both the man she loves and a great career in show business.
For most people, battling fat means struggling with diets rather than magical transformation through an extreme surgical makeover. As more people enjoy eating out at fast food restaurants, a substance widely used in fast foods called trans fat has come to be a major culprit in rising rates of obesity, now a major public health problem.
What is trans fat? Trans fatty acids, commonly called trans fats, used to come mainly from milk and the meat of grazing animals. Today, however, most transfats used in the food industry are produced artificially by partially hydrogenating plant oils (bonding plant oil molecules with hydrogen). These oils are used in the food industry to improve the shelf life of baked goods like cakes, snacks such as popcorn, fried potatoes and other popular foods. And the trans fat makes fried potatoes and popcorn crispier and cakes fluffier. Popcorn and fries without the partially hydrogenated oils tend to get soggy.
How much trans fat is contained in foods we commonly eat? Data from the Korea Food and Drug Administration shows that a 100-gram bag of popcorn contains 24.9 grams of trans fat. A 100-gram bag of fried potatoes has 4.6 grams of trans fat; and one hamburger, 0.7 grams.
Food companies here and abroad have been grappling with whether or not to use partially hydrogenated oils, because if they do not use the oil, their foods will be less appealing to consumers. At the same time, the trans fat created by the oil will be harmful to consumers’ health.
As an executive of one food company put it, “there are huge anxieties among food producers that the companies may collapse unless they stop producing foods with trans fat.”
Trans fat not only causes obesity but also poses a great health risk since it raises the level of bad cholesterol in the body while lowering “good cholesterol.” Bad cholesterol causes various diseases, including arterial sclerosis, high blood pressure and heart disease. Although it’s not yet fully clinically proven, trans fat is also suspected of causing cancer of the liver, stomach, and breast; diabetes, and even atopie disease. Trans fats, according to the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, “are not essential and provide no known benefit to human health.” The World Health Organization recommended in 2003 that trans fats be limited to less than 1 percent of overall energy intake.
With more now known about the harm it can do, dietary trans fat is tightly regulated in many countries with high fast food consumption. For instance, in January 2006, the U.S. government allowed the country’s food makers to put a “zero trans fat” label on a product only if the food contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat. The chicken fast food chain KFC declared last year it would switch all of the oil used in its 5,500 U.S. franchises to non-trans fat oils by the end of April this year.
Disney also declared it would not sell any foods that contain trans fats beginning late this year. McDonald’s, the fast food chain said it would lower the trans fat level in its foods beginning with its 6,300 branches in Europe.
In line with the worldwide trend, the Korean government is also expected to announce newly tightened regulations in December 2007. Does that mean consumers here will naturally choose foods with no trans fat, or that products with “no trans fat” labels will sell well? Local food companies saw it coming and have prepared for the change. One of Korea’s biggest food companies, CJ, said last month it developed a technology to lower trans fat levels in food products they make. Local cake and cookie makers also wasted no time declaring their foods are “trans-fat-free.” Lotte Confectionary and Orion, also major food producers here, said they also succeeded in lowering trans fat levels in their products and would put “zero trans fat” labels on their products soon. Not to be outdone, Crown Confectionary and Haitai Confectionary & Food also said they would roll out their own “trans fat-free” cookies and cakes. In short, food companies have been preparing to follow whatever guidelines the government has been planning to announce. But how to make foods that remain crisp and tasty without the trans fat is entirely up to the food companies.

How does the government regulate food safety?
The government has a lot of regulations on food products for Koreans’ safety. Here are the latest measures adopted by the government: Since last September, local food makers have been required to list every single raw material and supplemental substance contained in food products on product labels. Before then, the food makers were allowed to list just a few of the ingredients. In addition from December 2007, food companies will be mandated to enlarge text fonts for their labels, from the current 6 points to 8 points, to make it easier for consumers to read what’s written on the labels.
The government this month also adopted a rule for disclosure of origin of beef products, so beef retailers will be required to disclose whether the beef is domestic or foreign, and to categorize domestic beef into three kinds: brown cows, milk makers and others. All stores larger than 300 square meters (3,229 square feet) must follow the rule and will be slapped with punitive fines if they fail to do so.
In order to prevent incidents like last year’s mass food poisoning in school lunchrooms, all employees working at food distribution centers are required to take sanitary training at least once every two years.
In addition, local kimchi makers are required to follow new rigid production procedures for processing, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) first imposed on food providers for astronauts going to space. The system, called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), was first adopted in Korea’s food sanitation laws. This has now been introduced in textbooks for Korea’s middle and high school students.


By Jung Seon-gu JoongAng Ilbo [hawon@joongang.co.kr]
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