Putting On the Ritz
Ritz is putting us on. Just when you think its safe to open a box of your favorite old school crackers and not be assaulted by trans fats, think again.
While the helpful little nutritional “facts” box tells us that Ritz crackers contain 0 g of trans fat, this is not entirely true. If a product contains less than 0.5 g of trans fat, the FDA allows the company to round down and claim 0 g of trans fat. Where this all gets a little sticky is that the amount of trans fat listed is based upon the serving size. Theoretically then, a company whose product contains a high percentage of trans fat could lower their serving size until the trans fat amounts reach below the FDA’s reporting cut off of 0.5 g, whereby the company could then claim 0 g of trans fat. So you see, zero does not always mean zero*.
Think outside the box. If you really want to know what you are eating, read the ingredient list, because ingredients are always listed based upon proportion (if it appears at the head of the list then it is a major ingredient, if it appears at the end of the list then it is a minor ingredient). So, consulting the box of Ritz crackers, we find PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL listed exactly mid-way through the ingredient list, directly following enriched flour, soybean oil, and sugar, but ahead of high fructose corn syrup, leavening agent, salt, and soy lecithin. It is hard to say for sure, but it doesn’t seem like it is quite the “trivial” amount that the label claims, otherwise I might expect to find it listed somewhere closer to salt.
What to do? Look for a cracker without partially hydrogenated oil listed in the ingredients at all. My new favorite is Milton’s brand. These crackers taste as buttery as the Ritz crackers, but the fat comes entirely from safflower oil.
Moral of the Story: Always read the fine print. You might feel like a representative of the Ministry of Silly Shoppers when you stop and read ingredient labels in the grocery store, but you’ll save your health in the long run and support companies who are producing healthier products.
Food for thought: When you go to a restaurant they don’t even show you the neat little nutritional box. The FDA is not supervising trans fat use by restaurants, and chefs certainly aren’t cutting serving sizes.
*However, zero does more closely approximate zero in Canada, since the Canadian government set their cut off at under 0.2 g of trans fat.
