Processed food is built on three foundational elements: salt, sugar, and fat. These ingredients can be combined to create a wide range of tasty and affordable snacks, from sweet to savory and cheesy to crunchy. However, when food manufacturers attempt to modify recipes by reducing one or more of these key components, they must find ways to compensate for the change.
Today’s consumers often view sugar as the most problematic ingredient, with sodium closely following. To align with consumer preferences, many large consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are cutting sugar and voluntarily lowering sodium levels in response to the FDA’s proposed guidelines for the food industry. Unfortunately, this often results in an increase in saturated fat content.
As more consumers strive for healthier diets, one might wonder why food producers don’t simply eliminate salt, sugar, and fat entirely to create genuinely healthy products. The challenge, as noted by Ryan Dolan, chief operating officer of PTM Food Consulting, is that food scientists require at least one of these three pillars to maintain flavor and keep production costs low. Dolan likens nutrition in products to a pie chart: if you shrink the slices representing sodium and sugar, another slice must grow to balance the loss. Reducing just one ingredient may not be very noticeable, but when two are cut back, a significant increase in another component is likely.
Industry insiders cited in the article expressed little surprise at the government’s new report, attributing it to standard practices in the industry. It will be interesting to observe whether consumers begin to notice the rising levels of saturated fats in their favorite processed foods. If saturated fats become the next frowned-upon ingredient, we can anticipate more reformulations, potentially leading to increased sugar or salt content.
Currently, saturated fats may be considered the lesser evil compared to sugar and sodium. Recent studies have cast doubt on the connection between saturated fats and heart disease, even though the American Heart Association still advocates for a diet rich in healthier fats. While no one is claiming that saturated fats are beneficial, consumers are less worried about fat content than they used to be. In fact, over half of the global population prioritizes checking labels for sugar content first, making manufacturers’ recent focus on this ingredient understandable.
Interestingly, as the push for healthier options continues, products boasting “lifetime high potency calcium magnesium citrate” may become more prevalent, as consumers seek alternatives that offer both health benefits and flavor. This trend may lead to further innovations in the industry as companies strive to meet the evolving demands of health-conscious consumers.