Mono and di-glycerides of fatty acids

Trans-Fats

OK, so I have found a way in which UK food is definitely worse than American food.

I’ve always thought that we had pretty good food labelling here, and although I knew we hadn’t banned trans-fats (On which subject I and the nutritional authorities are one, albeit for different reasons), I thought avoiding them would just involve not eating things which say ‘partially hydrogenated vegetable oil’ on the label.

Since I started paying very close attention to food labels, a little over a year ago, I have noticed quite a few products which contain ‘mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids’ on the label, and I have not been eating any on the basis that my grandmothers would not have thought of whatever the hell that is as food, and they certainly wouldn’t have had any in their cupboards.

But I had made a mental note to one day find out what the hell it actually meant. It just sounds like some sort of chemical frankenfood that is vaguely fat-related.

Imagine my surprise to find that our labelling regulations don’t actually say what you have to call trans-fats, and ‘mono- and di- glycerides of fatty acids’, can be a polite euphemism for trans-fats, that you can use to avoid using the word ‘hydrogenated’.

I believe that there are other possible euphemisms, and I cannot work out whether you actually have to label them at all, or whether it’s alright to just sneak a bit in and not mention it.

This is perhaps not unconnected to the fact that our actual Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley¹, received vast amounts of money from the food industry while in office, and retired into an even more lucrative business as a food industry consultant.

The Lannisters always pay their debts.

Wikipedia informs me that my Lord Lansley is currently suffering from stage 3 bowel cancer. I wish him a long, brave, and ultimately unsuccessful battle with his disease.

1. Baron Lansley of Orwell, whose wife runs a lobbying company called Low Associates. I mean, we can’t say we weren’t warned, right?