Flaunting a fat-free profile

Source: Technology Digital

Date :8/31/2007 4:19:35 PM

The world’s largest producer of French fries, McCain Foods works to convince the public and food preparers that its trans fat free products are even better than ever

By David Weldon

When McCain Foods made the decision to go totally transfat free by the end of this year, the announcement was no small potatoes.

In fact, it was huge potatoes. As the largest manufacturer of French fries in the world, McCain processes nearly one million pounds of potato products per hour. That is a lot of no fat.

And if it would seem to be a simple matter to no longer put something into a product, the challenge with producing totally trans fat free potato products is in the processing oil, not the potato itself.

It is a challenge that McCain has decided to meet head on, setting a very public date of Dec. 31 to have trans fats disappear from its lines, except in those cases where trans fats are in fact a natural part of the food. Even with the Dec. 31 deadline, the company vows to get it done earlier. And when McCain announced its decision this past winter, it began an aggressive marketing campaign to get the word out.

“By the end of 2007, and probably sooner, we will have removed trans fats from virtually all our products, with the only exceptions being those that have them naturally, such as some cheeses,” explains Frank van Schaayk, CEO for McCain Foods USA, in Lisle, Ill.

McCain Foods international is headquartered in Florence, New Brunswick, Canada. But the Lisle, Ill. Headquarters has been kept plenty busy this year on the public relations front, as a growing number of U.S. communities ban their use in food preparation. That trend has sent huge ripples through the food industry, where the first step in eliminating trans fats begins — in the processing phase.

“In the process of creating dried foods, we do a Par-Fry step, which is a light deep fry at the factory,” van Schaayk says. “It shortens the time that the restaurant operator has to fry the foods.”

But it is also at the Par-fry stage that oils are introduced into the process, and where food products such as French fries have traditionally gotten their first taste of trans fats.

When those same food products are later prepared for serving — either in a restaurant or in a home — if they are cooked in oil that again has trans fats, well, the health concerns become obvious.

While trans fats gained the public’s attention in a big way this year, van Schaayk says McCain was already in the process of cutting back its use of trans fat laden oils. The efforts actually began in 2003, but took on a sense of urgency in late 2006. By that point, 29% of the company’s potato products (53 items) and 93 percent of its snack food service products (313 items) were trans fat free.

The skinny on trans fats

The use of trans fats in food processing is an outgrowth of fully hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, according to van Schaayk. Hydrogenated oils were introduced to food processing to make them more stable at room temperatures.

“It allowed for a broader application of vegetable oils, which have a lot of favorable aspects,” van Schaayk says. “It also allowed for the avoidance of using a lot of saturated fats.”

That is one of the biggest dilemmas with reducing the use of trans fats — how to do so without reverting back to more saturated fats. It poses somewhat of a Catch-22 for the industry at the moment.

The health risks of large amounts of saturated fats have been agreed upon for years, but it has only been recently that trans fats earned a similar reputation. So as more communities began debating bans on use of trans fats in restaurants, McCain Foods choose to accelerate its efforts to be rid of them, van Schaayk says. It centered its marketing efforts around a “Better For You” awareness campaign, which now includes 16 food service products.

The Better For You products all feature under 30 percent calories from fat, under 10 percent calories from saturated fat, under 230 Mg of sodium, and zero grams of trans fat.

Equally important is the company’s efforts to educate food preparers. As van Schaayk notes, McCain Foods can do all it might to eliminate trans fats from its products, but if a local chef tosses them in a pan with trans fat laden oil, their efforts have been for nothing.

“We have trained our sales force, and our independent brokers, to help communicate that message clearly,” van Schaayk says.

The food industry overall also needs to get the word out, van Schaayk believes.

“We think the industry needs to move more quickly, to give the general public confidence in the food that they eat,” he notes.

Van Schaaky says many individual companies are already doing a good job of addressing the problem, and several leading food companies have made similar announcements about reducing or eliminating trans fats in their production processes.

“A good example is McDonalds, which has done a lot to change the food processing, and to educate the public,” van Schaayk says.

A healthy bottom line

Tackling trans fats head on is not only the socially responsible thing to do, van Schaayk says, it would seem to be the politically correct thing to do. The public is interested in food products that are healthy, and making conscious purchasing decisions accordingly.

Still, van Schaayk says the great concern among all food companies now trying to eliminate trans fats, is how to do so without affecting the integrity of their products. After all, when the public likes something, they don’t want it tampered with.

“The danger is that the public doesn’t understand why you’re trying to change your product,” van Schaayk. This is especially true with a product with a long history with consumers.

McCain is therefore working with two marketing firms to help it with the public awareness campaign.

As part of the effort, it is reaching out to public school systems and nutritional organizations, to help them realize that McCain has made their potato products healthier.

“We want people to know that we found a good solution that preserves the eating experience for the consumer, but with products that are trans fat free, and with lower total fat,” van Schaayk says.