And so? To what extent should the state be allowed to act as a nanny? To what extent should the state be permitted to destroy liberty in the name of “public safety”?
Ummm… this lawyer is a private citizen. The FDA only is asking for a notice to be placed on the nutrition label.
what liberty is being destroyed by the state acting as a nanny?
You can sue most whomever you like. Just because you sue one cookie manufacturer doesn’t mean that you have to sue them all.
The gov isn’t doing this. The lawyer is a private citizen.
Isn’t he?
Oreo’s can be made w/o hydrogenated fats. Pepsico and other companies are already in their test kitchens working on new recipes for all sorts of snack foods.
NOBODY’S GOING TO TAKE AWAY OUR COOKIES!
they’re just going to get rid of the trans fats.
i don’t know what the lawyer in Marin county’s trying to do exactly. I suspect that Nabisco’s lawyers will stall him until they have their recipes changed.
In other words, they are panicking and changing the flavor of beloved foods in reaction to the latest nutritional bugaboo.
I don’t like oreos, that much and you can’t even get them in the UK, so I say BAN THEM!
Simon,
You’re the reason blowdryers have to have a warning not to use them in the shower, or not to take hemerroid cream orrally.
Should there be a warning label on cars because they could kill me?
Should that girl behind the counter of Wendy’s have to warn me about the potential health risk of biggie sizing?
When does it end? When does America finally start letting people take the rap for their own ignorence? Why is it the job of everyone else to make sure I don’t make foolish mistakes? It’s not like Nabisco was secretly poisoning the world. They used a certain fat in their filling. And for right now, the nutritionists say it’s bad (remember how eggs used to be bad…then good…then bad…etc).
Let’s call this what it is=Lawyer trying to make some quick money. I for one will continue to eat oreos, knowing full well, that I only have myself to blame if I get heart disease, rather than try to pass the buck. I mean, if there was a warning label, do you think it would matter? We all see how well it’s worked on smokers.
i’m not convinced that the flavor of snack items will change.
They can use the same fats, they’ll just use the cis arrangement of them instead of the trans arrangement.
Apparently the difference is the shape of the molecules not the components.
i’ll be suprised if the flavor changes in any dramatic way.
The reason why trans fats are favored by industry is that they resist oxidation better, hence a longer shelf life.
It’s not that they taste better.
I forgot when I did those things. Can you cite for me so I can remember doing them?
First, the FDA doesn’t want to ban trans fats- it only wants them to be noted on the nutritional label.
So it’s not a case of protecting people from their own ignorance so much as it is an attempt to fight ignorance by supplying info.
One of the differences between trans fats and the other things that you’ve mentioned is that eggs & eggcetera were always reccomended in limited amounts because they have many other nutritional benefits.
Trans fats have no nutritional benefits that other fats don’t have.
The responses here are evidence that there are people who are not aware of the NAS reports about trans fats. Foods are not currently labelled as containing trans fats. So I’d say that the FDA is only trying to allow people to make an informed choice.
I have no care really about what the lawyer is trying to do.
I think that you’ll find that soon your Oreos, (and mine too), will be made with cis fats instead. I hope you can adjust.
Well, I’ve been wrong more often than I’ve been suprised.
But I expect that senior vice presidents in charge of corporate affairs are liable to put a spin on things.
I’ll still be suprised if the flavor changes in any dramatic way
Does anyone have a cite that shows exactly what these evil trans fats do? I’m talking something that says, “X grams of trans fats will lead to a Y increase in heart disease,” or something to that effect. Without some hard numbers, I can’t help but be reminded by the Nasty Evil Fried Foods that cause cancer, only you have to eat something like 200 lbs of potato chips per day to have a noticable effect on cancer rates. Or the Nasty Evil Playground Equipment that causes cancer in children, provided the child achieve concentrations of the vile chemical in question so large, they’d have to pretty much eat the jungle-gym.
Until then, I’ll take this report with the grain of salt it deserves. (No, wait, better not. Salt is the enemy. Or is it? I forget what the dieticians posted on their Weekly List of Bad Foods That Will Next Week Be Found To Actually Prevent Several Diseases.)
If the hazard of trans fats cannot be firmly established to be a legitimate hazard (ie, more of a hazard than normal fats), then it’s unfair to force companies to list them.
Oh, and stay the hell away from my Oreos.
Jeff
A consistant flavor and texture are of paramount importance to the packaged food industry. You wouldn’t believe the lengths that Frito Lay goes to ensure that their product has a certain amount of crunch and flavor. To account for variables in temperature and humitidy there are 3-4 different Twinkie recipes. This ensures that no matter what time of year the Twinkie is made it will retain the same flavor and texture.
I know what an Oreo is suppose to taste like. If they change the recipe I might not enjoy it as much as I used to. I’d probably still enjoy it but it wouldn’t be the same Oreo I had as a child.
Marc
It’s not quite as detailed as you might like
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309085373/html/336.html#pagetop
When enough of them accumulate, they band together, burst out of your chest like and alien and begin hunting your next-door neighbors. Really.
Alright, I made it up. What do you want from me? I did notice no one attacked me for blatant and gross use of misquoting.
MGibson
I’ve been suprised before.
Nabisco etc. have teams of highly qualified experts who will work to protect the integrity of the flavors of our favorite snack foods.
I’m not at all clear as to how noting trans fats on nutrition labels is bad.
Manufacturer are changing recipes in anticipation of consumers’ preferences. There is no gov mandate that they can’t be used.
Trans fats are naturally occuring in some meats and dairy products, IIRC. Can’t really ban milk and meat now can they?
Who wants to address the lawyer and his lawsuit mentioned in the OP?
No, it’s yet another situation where nannyism is trying to murder reason. Last time I was at the supermarket, nobody was forcing any fats, trans or otherwise, on me. The simple truth is that there are people who insist that all liberty be obliterated. Their mechanism for making this palatable is to do so under the guise of “protecting” people.
Paternalism is the first step to tyranny.
I guess that’s the end of that.
And Kraft says it was doing that before the suit. So either they CAN replace/reduce trans fats without changing the flavor, or they decided it was the right move for some other reason.