Food Trends
Many consumers get their dietary knowledge from the media or friends and colleagues, usually in a matter of blind faith rather than scientific fact. Even when consumers think they are basing decisions on fact, the research cited is often taken out of context, creating anxieties about food. The latest nutritional fads become popular before their health claims have been validated and then are swiftly abandoned. In the past few decades, consumers have been deluged with fast-changing, often unscientific advice for healthy eating, adding confusion to the average person’s scant understanding of good nutrition. Consumers worry about the cholesterol, saturated fat, total fat, sugar, calories, salt, and additives in their food, but they have a hard time separating nutritional truths from fads and fiction.
The fat and cholesterol dietary reductions were fads, but also recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which works very hard to stick to science. The FDA has required that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol be listed on food labels since 1993. While there’s no doubt that this boosted animal agriculture’s efforts to produce leaner meat products, there are signs that consumers have tired of avoiding fat.
Science-Based Dietary Guidelines
Each new study should be woven into the normal fabric of scientific knowledge and not be presented as if it is earthshattering. No single study should trump everything published before. The recent update of the country’s nutritional guidelines by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an exception to the fad response and serves as a great model on how human nutrition policy should be set. The new dietary guidelines were painstakingly developed, considering all known nutrition science, and are aimed at healthy eating for weight loss, general nutrition, and healthy hearts. These guidelines should be followed rather than the latest best-selling fad diet book touted on television.
Quieting the critics who said USDA could not objectively oversee this work, a joint statement from the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and American Cancer Society said “the new guidelines are consistent with the recommendations of our own organizations to help Americans lower their risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke through better diets, more physically active lifestyles, and improved weight management.”
Trans Fats
In addition to recommendations on calories, exercise, fruits and vegetables, carbohydrates, total fat, and salt, the new dietary guidelines recommend that consumers reduce their intake of trans fatty acids, more commonly called trans fats. Also, the FDA is requiring that trans fats be listed on food labels by January 2006 because they are linked to the risk of heart disease. The case against trans fats has been built gradually over time, based on a preponderance of science. However, these ingredients have been present in the food supply for decades, giving products a long shelf life and making both so called “junk food” and some other processed foods taste good.
Trans fats are formed when liquid vegetable oils are partially hydrogenated to make them more solid, as in products such as shortening and hard margarine, and to meet the stability requirements for deep-frying. Trans fats were developed, in part, in response to recommendations that animal fats be avoided. A small amount of trans fat is found naturally in dairy products, some meat, and other animal-based foods. FDA’s regulatory chemical definition for trans fatty acids is all unsaturated fatty acids that contain one or more isolated (i.e., nonconjugated) double bonds in a trans configuration. Under the agency’s definition, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) would be excluded from the definition of trans fat. (CLAs are natural components of food from animals derived from linoleic acid that are potential “wonder nutrients.” They are found in milk fat, dairy foods, and meats derived from ruminant animals. There has recently been a surge of interest in the CLA content of the diet because of animal studies that suggest broad potential health benefits of this animal fat in both human and animal diets.)
Agriculture and Food Business Response
Companies such as Dow AgroSciences, Archer Daniels Midland, and Bunge have developed seed and vegetable oils that can meet the functional needs of food companies and contain virtually no trans fats, are lower in saturated fat than other vegetable oils, and remain as stable as the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils now used by many food processors. The best-case scenario for Americans would be if the next food fad or fat craze was actually based on the new dietary guidelines and trans fat reduction became as popular as the current low carbohydrate diets or low fat diets in previous trends. Food companies are preparing for a low trans fat trend, or are acting on a sense of responsibility by reformulating some versions of popular brand name foods to be trans fat-free such as Chunky soup, SpaghettiOs, Goldfish and Triscuit crackers, Crisco, and Oreo cookies.
Rendering Industry Impacts
What does this new recommendation mean for renderers? This industry continues to deal with a surge in market growth from competitors such as oils from palm, rapeseed, soybeans, and peanuts as food makers continue to turn away from animal fats in favor of vegetable alternatives. The new strategic planning question is whether the nascent trend away from trans fats in cooking oils will impact the market for fats fed to animals. Big clients for the used restaurant grease business, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dunkin’ Donuts, Applebee’s, Red Lobster, and countless other chains, reportedly deep-fry in partially hydrogenated shortening. Only a few chains have changed to trans fat-free liquid vegetable oil, but pressure from consumer groups is building. A wholesale switch to new oils for frying food could impact renderers by changing the composition and volume of raw material used for yellow grease destined for animal feed.
Possible effects of new human dietary guidelines on the rendering industry:
• There could be changes in demand for pet food ingredients, as people who want their pets to eat food as healthy as their own demand pet food low in trans fats.
• There could be changes in demand for livestock feed ingredients, though changes here are more likely to be based on research. Additional research may be needed on the feeding value of low trans fat oils to animals.
• Different fats used in human food would change the composition of restaurant grease, which could change the value, demand, or processing of animal feed fat.
• If trans fat-free cooking oil replaces partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in deep fryers, and the new oils are more stable and last longer, raw materials available for yellow grease production could decrease.
• Changes in human diets could be small because of apathy or “trend fatigue” in spite of recommendations and the effects on the rendering industry would then be negligible.
• Demand for low trans fat oils could further erode demand for edible tallow and lard, diverting these products to animal feed or other uses.
• There could be lower demand for animal-derived human food products across the board, meaning a downsized animal industry and fewer raw materials for rendering, as well as lower demand for protein meals and feed fat.
Rendering Company Response
Each rendering company should give these possibilities some thought, depending on their own business and customers. What is your assessment of the impact of recommendations on fat in the new dietary guidelines? Would the impact correspond to a strength or weakness in your business? Is a possible big change in trans fat consumption an opportunity or threat for your business? Will the trans fat issue be a passing fad like so many others? Will food companies change the formulation of their products because of the guidelines regardless of consumer demand? Will you, or can you, change the formulation of rendered products to meet a changing market?
The rendering industry serves the public interest by recycling and processing by-products from animal agriculture and food preparation into valuable feed ingredients. Any significant change in the structure of the livestock industry, composition of animals, preferred feed ingredients, or composition of oils used in deep fryers could impact the industry. Successful strategic planning considers various possible scenarios in advance so a good business response is close at hand.
Tech Topics - April 2005 Render