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Fruit Roll Ups Dangerous and Unhealthy?
Fruit Roll Ups, Fruit by the Foot and Fruit Gushers aren’t exactly marketed as health foods. They do, however, claim to be “naturally flavored, low fat, and a good source of Vitamin C.” But while all that may indeed be true, a woman in Brooklyn claims there is something General Mills, which owns Betty Crocker’s brand fruit snacks, isn’t telling us about their popular products: They contain partially hydrogenated oil.
Payton McClure, who describes herself as a “lifelong consumer of General Mills products,” is suing the food maker over “false and misleading” marketing for claiming that their fruit snacks are “nutritious” and “healthy to consume.” She has filed a complaint in Manhattan Federal Court seeking class-action status for her $5 million suit in which she claims the snacks are “dangerous” and “unhealthy.”
Partially hydrogenated oil has been banned in some countries due to trans fatty acids that have been linked to diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration requires all packaged foods to list trans fat content on their Nutrition Facts labels. Well, almost all. The rule includes this provision: “If the serving contains less than 0.5 gram of trans fat, the content, when declared, shall be expressed as zero.”
And according to the food blog Eat, Drink and Be, that’s where General Mills gets off the hook. Although these products may have trace amounts of partially hydrogenated oil, if the trans fat is under the 0.5 gram per serving limit, they don’t have to claim it.
A spokesperson for General Mills declined to comment, saying the company has not yet been served the lawsuit. But you can comment. Were you under the impression that these fruit snacks were healthy? Or, like me, have you always considered them to be more toy than food?
Image: plasticrevolver/Flickr
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0 Comments
[...] used in everything from candy to soup to salad dressings to fruit roll-ups. Now a new report says that food coloring poses cancer risks, hyperactivity in kids, and [...]
Food Coloring Causes Cancer, Hyperactivity in Kids | Strollerderby commented on Jul 01 10 at 9:01 ambob commented on Jun 30 10 at 3:32 pmSure would be nice if we could readily differentiate between food, candy, pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements. In a rational world, nobody could argue this stuff is anything but fortified candy.
Manjari commented on Jun 30 10 at 4:14 pmDid anyone really think these were healthy? How are they any better than gummi bears? People should try actual fruit if they want something natural and healthy.
LindaLou commented on Jun 30 10 at 4:26 pmI consider them candy.
mbaker commented on Jun 30 10 at 6:04 pmI personally prefer the Archer Farms fruit strips from Target or the dried fruit options at Whole Foods. My son loves them, they fit in my pocket and they contain actual fruit.
Laurence commented on Jan 09 11 at 1:36 amHonestly, good for this woman! I hope she gets her $5 million. More people need to be taking a stand against companies falsely advertising trans fats just like she did. I’ve even purchased margarine before that not only lists 0 grams of trans fats on nutrition labels, but advertises it on the front of the package. What people really need to focus on doing is looking for hydrogenated vegetable oils under the ingredients. This is really the only way to tell if a product has trans fats or not. Currently, the FDA does not require companies to list trans fats on their ingredients if there is less than 0.5 grams per serving. So some companies put 0.49 grams which is misleading… then they can just list zero. Luckily the FDA is changing the law so that trans fats have to be listed in increments of 0.1 instead. Until that happens, consumers need to understand how to spot trans fats in their food. I wrote an article on my blog about it that can hopefully help people. http://applebananacoconut.com/what-is-hydrogenated-vegetable-oil
Best,
Laurence
tasha commented on Feb 22 11 at 11:16 pmSeriously, its like the woman who sued McDonald’s for not having “caution hot” on hot coffee. Whoever thinks fruit snacks are a health snack, think again. The healthiest snacks/food have under 5 ingredients. People need to really be told this!?
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