10.11.2006

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Trans Fats: Consumer Clarity Or Confusion?

All things trans fat are making headlines, especially In New York City and Chicago where officials are working to ban such oils from city restaurants. These headlines, and earlier news concerning the FDA's ruling that requires food labels to list quantities of trans fats per serving have influenced the consumer lexicon on the topic just as food industry giants and restaurant operators act to reduce or eliminate trans fats from their products and offerings. While the topic is of considerable significance among public health officials and various pundits, what does trans fat as a topic mean to consumers? Do consumers know what trans fats are? Are they concerned about trans fats? Here we explore consumer understandings of trans fats, as well as their desires for labeling and information on the topic.

What Are Trans Fats?

Trans fats are made when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil. According to the FDA, this process of "hydrogenation" increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. Trans fats can be found in shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods and other foods fried with partially hydrogenated oils. Recent scientific evidence as well as the FDA cites that trans fats raise cholesterol levels and increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

How Do Consumers Define Trans Fats?

Different segments of consumers define "trans fat" in different ways. The ways by which consumers learn about trans fat and the degree to which they work to avoid such oils also varies across groups of consumers when segmented by their orientation toward wellness lifestyles. Most consumers are aware of trans fats; however, awareness is lowest among periphery wellness consumers (those consumers least involved in wellness lifestyles).

Being aware does not necessarily mean consumers understand trans fats. The majority of consumers have only a vague and general definition of what "trans fat" is and are often unable to clearly articulate the differences between this fat and others, such as polyunsaturated fat. This is especially common in periphery and mid-level wellness consumers. What is most salient in these definitions is the notion that trans fat is "bad" for one's health:

"I am not really sure [what trans fats are], I just know it is supposed to be bad for my health."

- Periphery Wellness Consumer

A small number of periphery and mid-level consumers believe that trans fat is actually the "good" fat.

"It's like artificial fat that replaces real fat with the same taste but no fatty calories to clog up heart arteries."

- Mid-Level Wellness Consumer

Most core wellness consumers (those consumers most involved in wellness lifestyles) are able to offer a detailed, technical definition that is consistent with that of the FDA. Many of these people act as information sources in their social network of family and friends. We sometimes refer to these individuals as "campaigners" because they tend to tell their friends about various issues related to wellness:

"Trans fats are a very unhealthy substance that make it very difficult to keep your cholesterol down. It is something added to products to increase its shelf life and can be found in French fries, margarine and shortening."

- Core Wellness Consumer

What Products Do Consumers Associate with Trans Fats

Trans fats are most often associated with snack foods, "fast food" and margarine. More specifically, the following foods are most commonly associated with trans fat or "bad" fat:

• Potato chips
• French fries
• Sweets
• Margarine

Indeed, consumers clearly associate most fried foods and mainstream snack foods with "bad" fat. Cookies, pastries and others "sweets" are sometimes associated with trans fat.

Consumer Strategies for Avoiding Trans Fats

Among consumers, as one moves closer to the core of high wellness involvement, the more likely one is to be aware of and concerned about trans fats. While orientation toward a wellness lifestyle appears to be a predictive factor with respect to usage of conventional snack and fast foods, concern about trans fat in and of itself is not predictive of usage. There are many other factors such as price, convenience and taste that generally exert greater influence on the decision-making of periphery and mid-level wellness consumers. As an example, periphery wellness consumers typically believe that most fat is bad for them but are generally not sufficiently knowledgeable to distinguish "good" fats from "bad" fats. They are also generally not sufficiently motivated to engage in any consistent avoidance strategy, even if they do believe that trans fat is bad for health. Moving toward the center of wellness involvement, many mid-level and most core wellness consumers report reading labels to identify levels of saturated and trans fat:

"I read the labels of foods that I purchase, research various foods on the Internet, and talk with food nutritionists about advice they can give me to help ward off over consumption of trans fats."

- Mid-Level Wellness Consumer

Core wellness consumers are typically knowledgeable about different kinds of fats and oils and actively avoid those that they believe will harm them. Most of these consumers believe that a certain amount of fat is healthy provided it is not saturated fat or trans fat:

"I use organic virgin olive oil and fresh butter as opposed to other cooking oils and margarine. I also try to limit snack foods to once or twice a week, and I always read ingredients and avoid trans fats."

- Core Wellness Consumer

Many core and some mid-level consumers report switching to olive oil as a way to reduce trans fat in their diet:

"I use olive oil all the time. There are many varieties of olives, and I choose the oil that tastes more like butter."

- Core Wellness Consumer

Reducing the amount of fried food is the most common way consumers limit their trans fat with 42% of consumers indicating this behavior; however, this behavior is much more prevalent among core wellness consumers, where 64% take this route versus only 23% among periphery consumers.

The behavior map below indicates, in consumers' own words, what they are doing to alter their diets to avoid trans fats.

To read this behavior map, begin at the bottom where consumers are just beginning to change their behavior. As you move up, you can see how behavior intensifies as a consumer becomes more aware of trans fats.

Consumer Health Triggers and Trans Fat Avoidance

Health triggers, such as a recent diagnosis or the presence of an existing health condition (e.g., heart disease), are the most powerful motivators for consumers to want to learn more about health and wellness, in particular a topic like trans fats. Having children or concern about the nutrition of one's children can also act as a key driver. These triggers also drive behavioral changes:

"A friend warned me about margarines and other trans fats when I inquired about more healthy foods right after my heart attack. It was later confirmed by a cable health show I was able to view and in my research at various health food stores and reading numerous health books and booklets."

Do Consumers Associate Disease with Trans Fats?

While most consumers define "trans fats" as one of the "bad" fats because they believe these fats can negatively impact their health, there is often only a weak association between trans fats and specific diseases or health risks. In this sense, the association between trans fats and health risk is weak and murky. Consumers are still unsure why trans fats are "bad." When consumers do cite a salient association between trans fat and a given disease or risk factor, they typically cite concern about heart disease and weight gain.

The Take-Away

The FDA required that all nutritional labels include trans fat levels starting in January 2006 and now city governments are working to ban such oils from restaurant use. While consumers consistently tell us that they appreciate initiatives like trans fat labeling on food packaging and sometimes use it, it is also clear that the FDA's labeling requirement or bans on the use of trans fat oils in restaurant use are likely to have only a minimal impact on consumer behavior.

Confusion about what fats are "good" and "bad" combined with the allure of price, convenience and taste make it probable that such efforts will only have a subtle impact. Importantly, there is a small segment of consumers who fully understand what trans fats are, how they are created and why they can cause heart disease. In time, knowledge and behavioral change will spread from this group to the rest of the population, perhaps to the level where we see diners inquiring at the table as to "what type of fat is used." Until that time, trans fat for now is still one of many "hazy" potential health threats that consumers contend with as part of their attempts to live a healthy lifestyle.

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