Word: fats
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PepsiCo, whose Frito-Lay snack foods represent 62% of its North American business, in September 2002 became one of the first food processors to cut trans fats, starting with its Doritos, Tostitos and Cheetos lines. The company says the conversion, which involved modifying 187 production lines and required 250 analytical tests of the reformulated snacks, trimmed $22 million from its bottom line in 2003. Taking the trans fats out of a product without affecting taste is often far more complex and costly than developing a new one from scratch. That's partly why Kraft had to be pushed to speed...
Joseph, who believes trans fats in margarine helped kill his stepfather, sued Kraft in May 2003 to stop it from marketing Oreos to elementary school students. The suit drew hoots of derision from tort reformers, even though Joseph withdrew it days later, after Kraft announced it would banish trans fats from the Oreo and then committed to doing so across its product lines. It has succeeded in converting 73% of its cookies and crackers, including Triscuits. But so far, the Oreo project has put on store shelves only low-fat, sugar-free and "golden" varieties of the cookie, which taste...
Kraft isn't alone in having suffered technical difficulties. Food giant ConAgra, which successfully produces trans-fat-free margarine spreads, has found stick margarine an intractable challenge. And trans-fat-free pie crusts, says director of product development Patricia Verduin, were as dense and chewy "as wonton wrappers." After 18 months, ConAgra has managed to strip several of its products of the offending fats, most notably its Kid Cuisine line. The customer response? Not a word. "The best reaction," notes Verduin, "is no reaction...
McDonald's spokesman Bill Whitman says the chain has been testing new oils and has had some success cutting trans fats in its chicken dishes. But it still has a long way to go. Burger King seems in no particular hurry to address the issue. Spokeswoman Lauren Hammann maintains that trans fats have "never been an issue" with customers but adds that the company is looking into the question. Yum! Brands has been testing oil blends for Taco Bell and KFC (Pizza Hut has always been trans fat free), but Yum! senior vice president Jonathan Blum says the scarcity...
TAKING THE FAT OUT OF MUSCLE MEMORY...