When consumers read food labels, many believe zero percent trans fat is the best choice for healthy eating.
“Lots of zeros are a nice way of demonstrating my product is actually healthier,” said Willie Loh of Cargill Inc., whose job is marketing specialty canola oil to food companies.
Consumer surveys have found that consumers believe labelling claims of no trans fats or zero percent cholesterol.
They are also willing to pay slightly more for these products because they perceive them as healthier choices.
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“In the U.S. and Canada there is tremendous confidence in the government and their ability to allow for legitimate claims on packages,” Loh said at an international food symposium in Calgary March 15.
“Consumers will base their decisions on these package claims.”
Eliminating trans fats has been expensive for food companies but the alternative was losing sales if changes were not made.
“Today every brand-driven food company is working on reformulating trans fat out of their products,” he said.
Trans fat consumption is believed to be linked to heart disease. It comes from hydrogenated vegetable oil and is formed during the manufacture of processed food.
It helps increase food’s shelf life and flavour stability and is less expensive than butter and lard when making cookies, chips, nutritional drinks, snack bars and other processed food.
When the Canadian and U.S. governments ordered last year that food manufacturers include the percentage of trans fats on food labels, companies thought they could reduce the fat over time.
In the end, however, they decided to remove trans fats entirely, but it cost millions of dollars to change recipes, packaging and manufacturing and storage equipment.
Processors had to ensure that their food tasted and looked the same. It had to be a stable product with the same shelf life.
Packaging with new labels was required and if, for example, a cookie became more brittle or softer, it would have to be packaged differently to protect it.
Suppliers including Cargill looked at changing genetic strains of canola to reduce the presence of trans fat.
Storage tanks for oil had to be changed and processing plants were modified. It was risky business.
“You have to get incrementally more money from doing this than you are doing with the old stuff. The difference has to pay for the investment,” Loh said in an interview.
When these new costs occur, companies must look for other ways to shave expenses and that might mean paying less for supplies to make the final product.
