Scout's Honor?

I love the Girl Scounts organizaiton. Their orgnization is known for helping young women develop life skills such as teamwork, leadership, money management, etc. These skills are best illustrated through the annual cookie sales. So since my niece is a scout and since I adore their cookies, I have purchased my weight in them. However, when I purchased some boxes today, I was surprised to find third on the ingredient list (partially hydrogenated palm, soybean and cottonseed oil) trans fat on the label. Actually they claim to be trans fat free -- thanks to a silly USDA labeling rule, which allows them to claim to be trans fat free.

Since the Girl Scouts empahsize healthy lifestyles and living, don't you think that they would require their cookie manufacturers to elimate trans fats?

The claim for keeping the fat in their scrumptious cookies is that taking it out would affect quality. (See reasons below taken from the manufacturers website.) Perhaps if they took the fat out, I wouldn't eat as many. Is that a bad thing?

What do you think?

From www.littlebrowniebakers.com
"Question:
How can the food label state zero grams of trans fat, yet list hydrogenated oils in the ingredients statement?

Answer:
We are aware of the health concerns regarding trans fats and we have invested significant resources in research and development to find suitable ingredient replacements to reduce or remove trans fats from our cookies. As of January 2007, all of our cookies were reformulated to contain zero grams trans fat per serving.

These changes are not as simple as substituting polyunsaturated oils. This would contribute unwanted changes in the food product itself, such as loss of crispy texture, change of appearance, and off-flavor.

We follow the Food & Drug Administrations (FDA) labeling laws. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues the regulations for all of the labeling information that appears on food packaging, including that for trans fat. Under the FDA regulations, trans fat is listed on the Nutrition Facts panel as zero (0 grams) if the amount of trans fat in a serving is 0.50 grams or less. As a result, these cookies list "0 grams" of trans fat in the Nutrition Facts panel, while the ingredient list includes "hydrogenated vegetable oil" or "shortening." The presence of these ingredients simply means the food contains a negligible of trans fat, or less than one half gram per serving. This amount is less than 1/20th of a teaspoon of fat."