(d) To compensate for any interference with absorption of fat soluble vitamins, the following vitamins shall be added to foods containing olestra: 1.9 milligrams alpha-tocopherol equivalents per gram olestra; 51 retinol equivalents per gram olestra (as retinyl acetate or retinyl palmitate); 12 IU vitamin D per gram olestra; and 8 [micro]g vitamin K1 per gram olestra.
Full Answer
Olestra: a new food additive. In 1987, Procter and Gamble Company (Cincinnati, Ohio) petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to amend the food additive regulations to allow sucrose esterified with fatty acids (olestra) to be used as a replacement for conventional fats.
In 1987, Procter and Gamble Company (Cincinnati, Ohio) petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to amend the food additive regulations to allow sucrose esterified with fatty acids (olestra) to be used as a replacement for conventional fats. The petitioner later restricted its request for use in savory snacks.
In addition, olestra affects the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins but does not affect the absorption of water-soluble nutrients. The petitioner's studies concluded that when olestra was consumed with foods containing vitamins A, D, E, or K, the fat substitute could have an effect on the absorption of these nutrients.
FDA considered evidence submitted by the petitioner, the opinions of experts, proceedings from the FDA Food Advisory Committee, and public discussion and concluded on January 25, 1996, that olestra was safe for use in savory snacks (eg, salty snacks such as potato chips, corn chips).
Snacks made with the fake fat olestra no longer will have to bear the unappetizing label that warned they might cause cramps and diarrhea.
Pauli cited people who blamed olestra for abdominal pain that turned out to be appendicitis and others who had weeks of diarrhea from intestinal viruses.
P&G said Americans have eaten more than 3 billion servings of snacks that contained olestra since 1996. The anti-olestra group CSPI didn’t immediately respond to FDA’s decision. Because olestra is undigested, it inhibits absorption of a few fat-clinging vitamins.
The synthetic chemical made of sugar and vegetable oil tastes like fat, but passes through the body undigested. The warning caused something of an uproar and helped limit olestra’s slower-than-anticipated sales.
The Food and Drug Administration lifted the warning Friday, concluding that if the zero-calorie fat substitute has any stomach-troubling effect, it’s mild and rare. The FDA approved olestra’s sale in 1996, as long as packages bore labels spelling out possible gastrointestinal side effects.
Half ate chips with olestra, and half ate chips they thought contained olestra but really didn’t, said FDA food additive chief George Pauli. The olestra eaters had only slightly more frequent bowel movements than the people who ate full-fat chips, he said. Of more concern to FDA were that people had falsely attributed serious health problems ...
Fruit doesn’t bear a warning label, however, and now olestra won’t either.
Olestra, also called by its brand name Olean, was chosen as an ingredient in these snacks because it's a fat substitute that adds no fat, calories or cholesterol to food products. There are two popular brands using olestra in their potato chips: Lay's and Pringles. Lay's chips that have olestra in their ingredients include Lay's Light KC ...
Pringles chips made with olestra include Fat-Free Bar-B-Q Pringles and Fat-Free Sour Cream and Onion Pringles. Olestra was discovered accidentally in 1968 by F. Mattson and R. Volpenhein, who were Procter & Gamble researchers.
In the late 1990s, Olestra lost its popularity due to side effects, which include diarrhea, cramps, and gas. It was also determined that consuming this synthetic fat can prevent a person's body from absorbing vitamins from healthy carotenoids found in fruits and vegetables.
olestra-containing foods would need to bear a label statement to inform consumers about possible effects of olestra on the gastrointestinal system.
To counteract this loss of nutrients, products made with olestra are fortified with oil-soluble vitamins.
Olestra is a mixture of hexa-, hepta-, and octa-esters of sucrose with various long chain fatty acids. The resulting radial arrangement is too large and irregular to move through the intestinal wall and be absorbed into the bloodstream. Olestra has the same taste and mouthfeel as fat, but it passes through the gastrointestinal tract undigested without contributing calories or nutritive value to the diet.
One of the main concerns the FDA had about olestra was it might encourage consumers to eat more of the " top of the pyramid " foods because of the perception of its being healthier. This could result in consumers engaging in over-consumption, thinking the addition of olestra would remove negative consequences.
By 2000, though, sales slowed to $200 million.
Olestra was discovered accidentally by Procter & Gamble (P&G) researchers F. Mattson and R. Volpenhein in 1968 while researching fats that could be more easily digested by premature infants. In 1971, P&G met with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to examine what sort of testing would be required to introduce olestra as a food additive.
The FDA removed the warning requirement in 2003, as it had "conducted a scientific review of several post-market studies submitted by P&G, as well as adverse event reports submitted by P&G and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The FDA concluded the label statement was no longer warranted". The FDA also agreed with P&G that the "label statement could be misleading and cause consumers of olestra to attribute serious problems to olestra when this [was] unlikely to be the case". : 46397
These problems delayed olestra’s approval until 1996, and even then its approval was burdened by qualifications. It could only be sold to the sector of the food industry called savory snacks, the area where sufficient research had been conducted. Those snacks had to carry a label that warned of possible gastrointestinal problems. And those snacks had to be fortified with extra vitamins.
The novelty of the invention was obvious and in 1971 P&G was awarded its first patent. “In accordance with the present invention,” the patent stated “it has been discovered that certain fatty acid ester compounds having at least 4 fatty acid ester groups [“ester” refers to the chemical bond between the fatty acid and the sugar molecule] have the physical properties of ordinary fat but are not digested or absorbed to the same extent when eaten…These compounds can therefore be used as a partial or total replacement for ordinary fat in fat containing food compositions to reduce the caloric value thereof.” The chemical term for the new molecule was sucrose (or sugar) ester, the generic label for the new ingredient was olestra (presumably because of the ester bond that bound the fatty acids to the sugar) and the brand name was Olean.
The lipase enzyme breaks these strips, or fatty acids, from the vertical spine that holds them together. Once the lipase breaks down the components of the fat the digestive tract absorbs the broken-down components. These components contain calories; if we absorb them and we don’t exercise, we get fat.
They had designed a simulated fat to provide the babies extra calories, which would translate into extra weight. Apparently, however, the babies were not digesting the fat ingredient and therefore not gaining the necessary weight.
The laboratory in Building 96 was humming with the optimism of an alchemist turning base metal into gold. It was the 1960’s, and food scientists at Procter & Gamble’s research center in Cincinnati were developing a product they hoped would be in every kitchen pantry and countless commercially made foods in America: an ingredient that would taste, feel, and cook like fat without actually being fattening.
Olestra is still in Pringle s and in Lay’s Light Chips and now also in Utz Yes Fat-Free Potato Chips. Last year the FDA, persuaded by P&G’s further research into olestra’s health effects, removed its requirement that foods containing olestra bear the discouraging label, and its makers are somewhat upbeat about its future.
The FDA itself had to work out new research and testing guidelines for the approval of olestra, and that process also took time; until olestra was presented as a candidate for approval no macroingredient, as the regulatory literature put it, had been presented to the FDA for review.