Keebler Lightens Up on Its Tropical Oils : Snack food maker joins other manufacturers that are bowing to pressure from consumers to get saturated fats out of their products.

Keebler Co. joined a group of major food companies Wednesday in announcing that it is taking steps to eliminate tropical oils--such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils--from its products, after an unusually aggressive consumer campaign against saturated fats found to contribute to high cholesterol levels.

Keebler said it is the first major snack food manufacturer to commit to a reformulation of its entire product line--eliminating animal fats as well--in response to consumer concerns about cholesterol. The company also said it would begin providing complete nutritional information on its labels. The Elmhurst, Ill.-based company said it is acting on the consensus of health authorities that the consumption of certain vegetable oils high in saturated fat cause the body to produce more cholesterol than it needs, contributing to the risk of heart disease. The reformulated products will begin to appear in grocery stores in March, Keebler said.

Keebler has about $1 billion in retail sales annually, mostly in the United States. The company, which would not give the cost of the reformulation, said it would not affect consumer prices.

The announcement follows a series of high-profile newspaper ads placed by the National Heart Savers Assn. in the nation’s largest circulation newspapers attacking several major food companies for their use of coconut and palm oils. The association accused the companies of “poisoning” America and misleading the public in the use of the oils, which contain no cholesterol, but which help cholesterol form after consumption.

The food companies, however, may be stirring another controversy among health experts about how much dietary changes actually decrease cholesterol. Some health officials point out that tropical oils are a negligible contributor to cholesterol in American diet and that the main culprit is animal fats.

The Heart Savers campaign was unusual in the swiftness of the response on the part of food companies. One week after the ads, Sunshine Biscuits Inc. of Woodbridge, N.J.--the maker of Hydrox cookies--said it would remove palm oil and palm kernel oil from its cookie and cracker products. The company said it had been planning the action for several months. Pepperidge Farm of Norwalk, Conn., also said it would remove coconut oil from its crackers and cookies--including the popular “Original Goldfish”--by summer. Kellogg Co. of Battle Creek, Mich., which was blasted for promoting the supposedly cholesterol-reducing properties of the bran in its Cracklin’ Oat Bran cereal while using tropical oils in the cereal, also said it would eliminate the oils. Keebler also said Wednesday that it had been working on reformulating its products for more than a year.

The oils are used extensively in food formulas because of their taste, texture and ability to lengthen shelf life.

Nabisco Brands, a unit of RJR Nabisco, said it has several products without tropical oils--including Almost Home Cookies and the new Ritz Bits. The company has been testing formulas for all products, including Oreo Cookies, which still have saturated fats, said spokeswoman Caroline Fee. “But the taste of Oreos is almost sacred. We have to make sure that we don’t alter the taste,” she said.

Phil Sokolof, the 65-year-old self-made millionaire from Omaha, Neb., who founded the Heart Savers Assn., was ecstatic Wednesday after the Keebler announcement. “We congratulate them. We’re very happy that they have taken action. Obviously, we are being heard by the American public,” said Sokolof, who radically altered his diet after surviving a heart attack 22 years ago.

Sokolof said he believed that there was an overwhelming consumer protest over tropical oils after the Heart Savers ads because many consumers had been taken in by the “no cholesterol” promotions and were shocked to learn that the oils were high in saturated fats.

Malaysians Upset

Although most of the foods will continue to include high-cholesterol butter and eggs, Sokolof said that is different because consumers who want to avoid cholesterol are more aware of the properties of those products.

Although the food companies have quieted protest among consumers, they have raised the ire of the government of Malaysia, which exported $76 million in palm oil to the United States in 1987. “This particular campaign is a form of trade protectionism disguised as a health issue,” Berkeat Gan, Malaysia Trade Commissioner, said Wednesday in Los Angeles.

The American Soybean Assn. has asked the Food and Drug Administration to require that tropical oils not be classified as vegetable oils and that food products containing the oils be labeled as containing a saturated fat. (Some companies have said they are substituting soybean oil for tropical oils.)

Some Malaysians have privately suggested that American soybean producers inspired the anti-tropical oil campaign. Sokolof said the charge is unfounded in that he provides the sole financial support for Heart Savers.

Noting that Malaysian palm oil exports to the United States dropped 26% between 1986 and 1987, Gan said Malaysia views “with concern the impact of the campaign on the palm oil industry in Malaysia as it is vital to the country’s socioeconomic development and poverty eradication program.” Some 400,000 people work in the industry, he said.

“The concern of U.S. consumers of the effects of dietary fats on cholesterol levels should be rightly addressed at its domestic sources of dairy and animal fats which are consumed in far greater amounts,” Gan said, adding, “the campaign based on the premises that palm oil is a saturated fat and raises cholesterol levels, is without sound scientific foundation.”

Dr. Wayne Bidlack, assistant professor at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, said the impact on cholesterol levels of removing tropical oils from the diet is going to be “probably zero.”

“The amount of saturated fats from tropical oils is probably insignificant,” Bidlack said. Moreover, he said, studies have shown that dietary changes reduce cholesterol a maximum of 10%. The most important factors in heart disease, he said, are smoking and hypertension. Other factors include obesity and diabetes.

WHY FOOD COMPANIES USE SATURATED FATS They’re inexpensive.

They act as emulsifiers, producing smoother taste and texture.

They’re readily available.

They lengthen shelf life.

HOW TYPES OF FATS COMPARE

Fats fall generally into two categories: unsaturated fats, which are lower in cholesterol, and saturated fats, which either contain cholesterol or promote its formation in the body. At room temperature, unsaturated fats are liquid while saturated fats are solid.

Saturated Fats

Beef tallow

Butter

Cocoa butter

Coconut oil

Lard

Palm oil

Palm kernel oil

Unsaturated Fats

Corn oil

Olive oil

Peanut oil

Rapeseed oil

Safflower oil

Sesame oil

Soya/soybean oil

Sunflower oil

Source: University of Nebraska