Inspired by trans fat bans imminent in New York and Chicago, Dining Services officials say they plan to rid university diners of the harmful fat by mid-February.
Dining Services officials decided to eliminate them from university menus last summer and have since worked to phase them out of their foods, replacing trans fat-filled vegetable oil used to cook french fries, chicken fingers and many other baked goods with a trans fat-free soybean-based oil.
The department began by introducing a new trans fat-free recipe for cake mixes at the beginning of this year, and, as they exhaust their final supplies of vegetable oil this month, Dining Services officials hope to begin operating exclusively on the soybean-based oil within the next two weeks.
Proven to cause coronary disease, various studies have shown trans fats increase the risk of other chronic health problems such as diabetes, obesity and cancer.
The switch to non-trans fat oils is expected to cost Dining Services at least $8,000 next year, a cost students will see reflected as a part of the 4.15 percent increase in their board rate for next year, Associate Director for Dining Services Joe Mullineaux said. However, The decision will not affect the prices of individual items, however.
Dining Services originally instituted a switch to non-trans fats in 1993, but the university’s budget crisis 2003 forced them to cut many expendable costs, so they switched back to using partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in their kitchen because it was cheaper, Mullineaux said.
As they move toward introducing non-trans fats, Mullineaux said one of the department’s main concerns was preserving the tastes to which students have become accustomed when they eat at the dining halls. He said the difference between the quality of food cooked with and without trans fats is generally insignificant.
“No one is going want to give up flavor,” Mullineaux said. “As much as people say they want healthy foods, they really only want healthy foods if they’re going to taste good.”
No students have complained about the trans fat-free cakes Dining Services served last semester, Administrative Chef Jeff Russo said.
“It’s been a pretty painless transition,” Russo said. “Sometimes they taste different, but it’s hard to tell; you’d really need an acquired taste.
For now, the University of Illinois-Champaign is the only one of the school’s five peer institutions not to have rid their dining plans of trans fats. But Maryland is still relatively ahead of the curve in terms of reducing the use of trans fats, according to Jodi Smith, marketing director for the National Association of College and University Food Services.
“It’s just beginning where we’re starting to see some universities go trans fat-free,” she said. “It’s just starting to gain some momentum.”
Because trans fat-free substitutes are not available for many of the bakery’s other staples such as donuts, croissants and muffins, Mullineaux said there will be a few exceptions to their new policy. Nonetheless, when the department replaces all of its partially hydrogenated frying oils this February, their menu will be 98 percent-trans fat-free, he said.
Yet many items in the dining halls not devoid of trans fats may continue to be served only because the Food and Drug Administration defines a food as trans fat-free as long as it contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fats per portion.
University of North Carolina and University of California-Berkeley, two peer institutions, have taken further steps to remove the majority of these foods technically categorized as trans fat-free. Dining Services won’t be ready to make that kind of leap this year, Mullineaux said, but it is the department’s goal.
“We’re doing the big things first, we haven’t gotten to that point yet,” he said.
Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.
