‘Lite’ Foods Abound, but Labels Can Confuse : Marketing: Consumers can feel less guilty when they pig out. But there’s no such thing as a free munch.

If you’ve been awake for the past few years, you know that tropical oils are bad, cholesterol can kill, and sugar, well, enough’s enough. But you’re a junk-food junkie and you just have to have coffee cake in the morning, chips at lunch and popcorn before bed.

Well, you’re in luck. In recent months, grocery shelves have begun to bulge with sleek new incarnations of the previously sinful: Entenmann’s fat- and cholesterol-free chocolate loaf cake, Pepperidge Farm’s strawberry shortcake, Frito-Lay’s Light Ruffles.

“Just about every company’s jumped on the ‘lite’ bandwagon,” says Lynn Dornblaser, publisher of Gorman’s New Product News, “because everyone wants to indulge. This way you can indulge and not be so bad.”

But it’s not all sweetness and light in the land of the low-fat bakery. Indulgence may be in, but so is confusion and controversy.

The Food and Drug Administration and several consumer groups contend that many food companies are misusing the “light” label to the detriment of American shoppers. And some of the products touted as less sinful than their earlier counterparts aren’t even very low in calories.

“The term light or lite is often an abused term on the labels of many products, because it’s not clearly defined,” said Chris Lecos, an FDA spokesman. “If you’re trying to imply that it’s light in sugar, there is no definition for what is meant for light in sugar. And we have no definition for light fat or high fat.”

Consider the way Pepperidge Farm characterizes its Dessert Light chocolate-mousse cake: “Rich, moist chocolate cake smothered in a light chocolate mousse made with real whipped cream. . . . Chocolate heaven with low cholesterol at only 190 calories.”

Real whipped cream? “Only” 190 calories? For 190 calories, the hungry at heart can gobble up a medium baked potato (90 calories) with butter (100 calories per tablespoon).

Pepperidge Farm spokeswoman Ann Davin acknowledges that consumers are often confused by labeling claims, because “light” can refer to calories, fat, or cholesterol. But she defends the way her company’s Dessert Light line is packaged.

“I think the obligation of the manufacturer is to clearly label from what standpoint the product is light,” Davin said. “Our labels make that clear. Our line is labeled as light in calories.”

Of the 9,192 new food products introduced in 1989, more than 10% were touted as low-fat or low-calorie, Dornblaser said, but it was the number of new low-fat foods that “really hit the roof.” In the past three years, low-fat product introductions nearly quadrupled, with 159 unveiled in 1987 versus 626 in 1989.

Manufacturers are targeting the same market that Levi Strauss tries to lure with jeans that have “a scosh more room in the seat and thighs:” baby boomers with blossoming bodies and doughnut dreams.

Dan Cowan, a spokesman for the 7-Eleven chain, says of Slurpee Light: “We think that there are a number of people who have grown up drinking Slurpee . . . who have this interest in drinking Slurpee again but feel guilty doing it. We’re going to give them an opportunity to come back to Slurpee.”

Or, as a spokeswoman for Entenmann’s said of the 100-year-old bakery’s new fat- and cholesterol-free line: “It’s targeted at consumers who can no longer eat baked goods--cakes and cookies--because of health reasons. We’re hoping they will again become Entenmann’s fans.”

Entenmann’s plans to woo its sweet-toothed customers back with a dozen confections ranging from chocolate loaf cake to a cherry-cheese coffee cake--all available in Southern California since April. They’re baked without butter, shortening or tropical oils. The company uses less sodium, and it substitutes egg whites for whole eggs, nonfat milk for whole milk.

The fat- and cholesterol-free claims ring true, but the calorie reduction is not enough to allow Entenmann’s to come right out and call the product “low calorie.” For while the FDA does not define “light,” it does have official criteria for the term “low calorie” or “reduced calorie.”

To be dubbed low calorie, Lecos said, a product must contain no more than 40 calories per serving. For reduced calorie claims, a product must be at least one-third lower in calories than a similar food in which calories have not been cut.

Thus, Entenmann’s misses the boat. A one-ounce slice of regular All-Butter Pound Cake is 115 calories, while a comparable slice of the new Golden Loaf Cake is 80 calories.

Low-calorie or no, the products have been “flying off the shelves,” an Entenmann’s spokeswoman said. “There’s been a great demand for it. It’s doing well.” But the company hasn’t convinced everyone.

Mildred Johnson, for one, eschewed the baked goods Thursday morning in favor of Jello Light Pudding and Sugar-free Fudgesicles.

“Entenmann’s may take out the fat and it may take out the cholesterol, but the sugar’s still there,” the Los Angeles woman said. “I’d rather have sweeteners. I’m nearly 83 and I’ve been eating (sweetener) for a long time and it hasn’t done me any harm.”

Numbers of new “light” products in the marketplace. Low-calorie percent change from 1987-89 is up 123% (about doubled). Low-fat percent change from 1987-89 is up 294% (about tripled).

Low percent Low percent Year calorie change fat change 1989 962 103% 626 228% 1988 475 10% 275 73% 1987 432 159

Source: Gorman’s New Product News