Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
Level 5 — High concernIn Winter's Dictionary2 sources
Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil is a other — Hydrogenated vegetable oil used in margarine, crackers, snack foods, baked goods (the source of trans fats)
Also: PHO
What it does
Hydrogenated vegetable oil used in margarine, crackers, snack foods, baked goods (the source of trans fats)
Where you'll see it
margarine, crackers, snack foods, baked goods (legacy); largely phased out post-2018 in US
What the research says
Source of artificial trans fats. Only label term proven to predict heart disease. Took until 2015 to delist. Caused hundreds of thousands of US heart attacks per year before regulatory action.
[ultra-processed-people] Hydrogenation invented to solidify liquid plant oils into butter substitutes; partial hydrogenation creates trans fats linked to heart disease that have caused hundreds of thousands of US heart attacks and tens of thousands of deaths per year, with first published concerns in the 1950s. Emily Broad Leib (Harvard) uses trans fats as the case study for why FDA self-determination is dangerous: 'If trans fats had been self-approved then they would never have been on anyone's radar.'
Regulatory status
- US FDA: BAN
- EU: banned
- Notes: FDA delisted partial hydrogenation 2015 after determining trans fats not GRAS
Sources
- Ultra-Processed People (van Tulleken) — Chapter 15: Dysregulatory bodies: The FDA recognised that these fats were causing hundreds of thousands of heart attacks, and tens of thousands of deaths each year
- A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives (Winter): See Hydrogenation and Trans Fatty Acids