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Does ZERO on the label always mean no trans fats?

Posted February 19th, 2007 at 12:00 PM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: Nutrition, Healthy Eating

Many products that advertise zero grams of trans fat on their labels still have partially hydrogenated oils in their ingredient lists, which means that they DO contain trans fats despite their label claims.

US labeling laws allow a manufacturer to claim ZERO if there is less than one-half gram (.5g) of partially hydrogenated oil per serving. That doesn’t sound like much, but if a serving size is one teaspoon or one cracker, it can add up to a lot of trans fats in a tub of margarine, a bowl of cereal or a bag of chips.

I think the claims are deceptive, but the manufacturers are not breaking the law. Use the list of ingredients as your source of information, not the nutrition panel or the “Zero Trans Fat” claims. If the words “partially hydrogenated” appear in the list of ingredients, look for another brand.

Many manufacturers are developing new formulations of their popular brands that contain NO partially hydrogenated oils. Seek these products out and vote with your pocketbook.

This post is written by Dr. Gabe Mirkin, M.D.. Dr. Mirkin is board certified in Sports Medicine and has practiced for over 40 years. He has completed more than 40 marathons and was a talk show host of a nationally-syndicated radio program for about 25 years. For more articles by Dr. Mirkin, please check out: www.DrMirkin.com

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Tags: dr gabe mirkin, food label, hydrogenated oils, label, nutritional label, trans fat, zero trans fat

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One Response to “Does ZERO on the label always mean no trans fats?”

Lynn Zimmer said:

I recently gave my brother a recipe using Fat Free Cool Whip thinking that it would be fine for him. He suffered from a heart attack and needs to avoid eating any trans fat completely. The nutritional label clearly has a zero next to trans fat. However, he recently informed me that if you read the ingredients list it contains partially hydrogenated oil which is trans fat. Thanks for putting this information on your web site. Most people do not know this and as a result do not make informed decisions.
February 19th, 2007 at 4:25 pm