It was a long time in coming. While rumors about the negative health implications of trans fatty acids had begun circulating in the 1980s, the push for labeling didn’t begin until the following decade, when several significant studies showed that trans fats were as bad for the heart as the saturates they replaced.
In the beginning
In 1994, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) petitioned FDA to mandate that all foods’ Nutrition Facts labels list the amount of trans. In 1999, FDA came up with the first proposal for trans fat labeling, but delayed issuing an actual rule pending a report on trans intake and its repercussions from the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine (NAS/IOM). When the report came out, the panel recommended that people consume as little trans fat as possible because it found “a positive linear trend between trans-fatty-acid intake and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol concentration, and therefore increased risk of CHD (coronary heart disease).” By then, it was no longer a matter of if labeling would be required, but when.
Finally, in 2003, after requesting and receiving additional comments, the other shoe dropped: FDA announced that, by Jan. 1, 2006, manufacturers had to list trans fat on nutrition labels (see Web Resources for exceptions). The agency said the impetus was scientific evidence that showed consumption of trans fatty acids increases levels of LDL-C, a primary risk factor for CHD, compared to diets containing cis-monounsaturated or cis-polyunsaturated fatty acids.
“Our choices about our diets are choices about our health, and those choices should be based on the best available scientific information. This label change means that trans fat can no longer lurk, hidden, in our food choices,” said Dr. Mark B. McClellan, Ph.D., then commissioner of FDA. “Americans will now be armed with better information to reduce their intake of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol--which could significantly lower the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in America today.”
Following the rules
In the final rule, FDA requires a nutrition-label declaration of the amount of trans fatty acids present in foods and dietary supplements. Unlike other nutrients, such as saturated fat, no % Daily Value (DV) is listed, since the NAS/IOM report did not provide a Daily Reference Intake (DRI) value. The report mentioned that the negative health effects might suggest a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) of zero, but because it would be nearly impossible to avoid trans fats in a regular diet, in large part because of their natural occurrence in ruminant meat and milk, totally eliminating them would require extraordinary changes in dietary intakes that could create other undesirable effects and unknown health risks.
