Unilever to remove artificial trans fats

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., July 27 (UPI) -- Unilever intends to remove all artificial trans fats from all its soft-spread margarine brands, the Dutch consumer giant said Monday.

The move, affecting well-known brands such as I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and Shedd's Spread Country Crock, will begin next month and end by 2010's second quarter, the company said.

The change signals how serious the marketing and technology battle about trans fats in foods has become, said USA Today, which first reported Unilever's plans.

Shoppers increasingly demand that foods they buy -- from baked goods to snacks to margarine -- no longer carry artery-clogging trans fats that can lead to heart disease by raising "bad" cholesterol levels and lowering "good" cholesterol levels.

"I call this the death knell for trans fats," New York University nutrition Professor Marion Nestle told the newspaper.

Michael Jacobson, director of advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, which pushed for trans fat abolition, told the newspaper the elimination of trans fats from the U.S. diet "should be written up as a business school case and studied."

Trans fats have been reduced more than 70 percent in three years, he said.

Unilever, whose U.S. headquarters is in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., already claims "zero grams" of trans fat in its margarine spreads, which also include Brummel & Brown and Imperial.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules let foods with less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving be labeled "0 grams of trans fat."

Unilever makes half the spreads sold in the United States.

Health authorities worldwide recommend consumption of trans fats be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are more harmful than naturally occurring oils, the authorities say.