Trans-free companies

This category has been set up exclusively for food companies that have made a public commitment not to allow trans fats into their products. It you are from such a company, please let us know and we will be pleased to add you to the list.

• Buxton Spa Bakery - in November 2006 the family-owned company announced that its entire product range was free of hydrogenated oil. This also applies to its products sold under the Holmfield Bakery brand. The move is part of the company's "commitment to producing high quality products in line with the latest health recommendations".
• Paterson Arran is a maker of Scottish oat cakes, shortbread and other fine foods. Not only are their biscuits free of hydrogenated oil, they are also free of palm oil due to its environmental impacts on south-east Asian rainforests. Instead they use olive oil - good for you and for the planet!
• Tunnocks - this Scottish biscuit maker is to be trans-free by Jan 2007.
• Go Lower Ltd, the producer of the Go Lower range and Altu fruit, nut & cereal bars, does not use hygrogenated oil in any of its products: "We are commited to ensuring that our products do not contain any artifical ingredients and especially HVO products" (Kevin Dorren, Go Lower, 16 June 2006).
• Ebortec is a specialist edible oil and fat processing company performing refining, degumming, inter-esterification and even hydrogenation, with a particular expertise in, and commitment to, maintaining low levels of health-damaging trans fatty acids. Based in Yorkshire.
• Wrights Flour are traditional flour millers who have diversified into bread mixes. A few of their mixes have contained hydrogenated vegetable oil, however in November 2005 the company decided to remove it from the entire product range. This process may take several months to complete, so keep checking the ingredients until mid-2006.
• The Vaults & Garden mostly organic café & restaurant on Oxford's Radcliffe Square serves excellent food, all guaranteed free of hydrogenated oil.
• Fruit Bowl / Stream Foods - who produce fruit snacks, some with yogurt coatings, went trans free in April 2005.
• The American Palm Oil Council website is a good source of information about palm oil - presenting it all in the most positive possible light, of course.
• Novozymes is a leading company in the field of enzymatic interesterification, which is when an enzyme is used on a mixture of different fats to make them exchange their constituent fatty acids to achieve a mix at a molecular level. This emymatic interesterification is far preferable to chemical interesterification, since is predictable and takes place at lower temperatures. This is important as it interesterification is part of the process of engineering trans-free oils and shortenings with the properties required by food processors.
• Altu are makers of fruit / nut / cereal bars, who manage to do it without hydrogenated oil or other nasties. The bars taste good, too! Their 'smart' website can tell you of your nearest stockist. See also the 2 minute movie explaining the evils of hydrogenated oil.
• Sanstrans is a division of Holland-based global palm oil giant Loders Croklaan, with offices worldwide one in Hertfordshire, UK. It was created principally to supply trans fat-free oils in the US, and describes itself as "the leader in no-trans, non-hydrogenated oils, fats and shortenings". Any food manufacturer trying to find an alternative to hydrogenated oil should check out their impressive product range.
• Weetabix, who also make Alpen, Ready Brek, Weetos.