Coming to a Store near You: Trans Fat Labels

Trans fats are known to be risk factors for cardiovasculardisease and, like saturated fats, can raise low-densitylipoprotein ("bad") cholesterol levels. But until recently,whereas saturated fats have been included on food packaginglabels, trans fats have not been required information.That changed at the start of 2006, when the FDA requiredfood manufacturers to start listing trans fat information ontheir regular packaging.

Nutritionists stated that although most people are awarethat "hydrogenated"or "partially hydrogenated"vegetableoils may signal the presence of trans fats, just listing thesewas not enough to determine exact amounts of trans fats inthe foods in question. Also, many people are not aware howmuch trans fat is too much in their diets.

New labels will show the amounts of trans fats in eachfood in relation to the 2000-calorie diet comparison currentlypresent on most labels, and that 20 g of saturated fat is therecommended daily intake limit. Listing exact amounts oftrans fats will help people determine how close they are toreaching that limit.