Monitoring leads to call for clampdown on bad fats

By Mike Deibert

OTTAWA—The Heart and Stroke Foundation wants the federal government to pass regulations clamping down on trans fats.

Health Canada said in December it is considering what to do, after announcing the results of a fourth round of monitoring the level of trans fats in Canada’s food supply, which took place in the fall of 2008 and early 2009.

For Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the verdict is already in.

“Two years of self regulation hasn’t worked,” she stated in a release. “Voluntary measures clearly aren’t working. Our federal government must act now to protect the health of Canadians and regulate. It is time.”

She said, “This fourth and final round of monitoring has demonstrated that levels of heart clogging trans fats are still far too prevalent in our food. They can even be found at dangerous levels in foods in children’s hospitals–the very places that are meant to improve the health of our children. Without government intervention, the trend will sadly continue.”

Brown added, “Once again, the levels of trans fats in baked goods, pastries and cookies, products which are frequently consumed by children, is particularly disturbing.”

In its latest check of trans fats, Health Canada focused on small and medium-sized restaurants and fast food chains, as well as high schools, hospitals, movie theatres and universities.

It found that 21 per cent of french fries, 26 per cent of chicken products, 50 per cent of bakery products and 60 per cent of cookies still have levels of trans fat that are far above the maximum percentage called for by a special committee on trans fats that reported to parliament.

The monitors found that results indicated some of the restaurants had reduced trans fat to acceptable limits, but progress in reducing the harmful substance was slower in institutional cafeterias.

They found that some bakery products, desserts and cookies remain high in trans fats. “The hurdles they (foodservice operations)  face (in eliminating trans fats) include maintaining the functional properties of their products,” said Health Canada’s report. “However, alternatives are now available for all applications.”

Since the federal government passed labelling laws requiring companies to list nutrient content on packages, an increasing number of manufacturers have made a variety of products trans fat-free.

The Health Canada website says, “The fourth set of monitoring data continues to indicate that the nutrition labelling regulations are an effective motivator for industry to reformulate their products, as many food manufacturers have reduced the trans fat content of their products to meet the five per cent trans fat of total fat content limit.”

But Brown argued, “Nutrition labelling didn’t adequately tackle the problem. Without regulating processed trans fats there is no incentive for many companies to comply with reduction.” 

In June 2006, the federal Trans Fat Task Force, which included members from Health Canada, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA), called for legislation limiting total trans fat content to two per cent in cooking oil and spreadable margarine and five per cent in other foods.

In June 2007, then federal Health Minister Tony Clement called on food companies to voluntarily reduce trans fats. He said if the industry did not make “significant progress” Ottawa would impose limits by federal legislation.

Based on data from the Harvard School of Public Health, the Heart and Stroke Foundation estimates that high consumption of trans fats leads to a threefold increase in the risk of heart disease. Citing two other researchers, the foundation stated in its release that trans fats are responsible for almost 3,000 cardiac deaths each year in Canada.

Also, according to the foundation, trans fats are about five times more harmful than saturated fats, when compared gram-by-gram,

In Europe, Denmark imposed a legal limit of two per cent trans fat content in fats and oils in food products in 2003. In 2008, Switzerland passed similar legislation.

Calgary passed a bylaw in 2008 that said cooking oil and margarine used in restaurants may not have more than two per cent trans fat.

The CRFA opposed Calgary taking action on its own. The association contends that any trans fat ban should be national, in order to avoid a patchwork of local regulations.