Washington Watch Trans Fat Rule Easy on Dairy
FDA's new requirement that food labels will have to include nutritional information regarding trans fat content by January 1, 2006 should not have significant impact on dairy processors. Industry representatives say most dairy foods contain very low levels of naturally occurring trans fats, so the majority of dairy products will fall below the FDA's threshold and will be able to list "zero grams" on the label. If a product contains less than 0.5 grams of total fat and makes no claim about fat, fatty acids or cholesterol, the food is exempt from adding a line for trans fat in the nutrition facts panel. Even so, dairy processors will still have to put all their products through a new round of testing, and those with no significant amount of trans fat will be exempt from a separate line on the nutritional panel, but must include a "not a significant source" line.