United Biscuits

United Biscuits are the owners of the McVities, Hula Hoops, KP, McCoys, Jaffa Cake, Penguin, Phileas Fogg and other brands.

The company has recently begun to remove hydrogenated oils from some of its products. In particular its biscuits sold under the McVities brand are now mostly free of hydrogenated vegetable oil, and are effectively free of trans fat.

Announcing the McVitie's move, a UB spokesman said:

"We are aware of the potential health concerns over TFAs and have removed partially hydrogenated vegetable oils from the majority of our biscuit doughs, which will result in either very low trans fats or no trans fats being present."

However cream fillings in UB bicuits including its iconic "Penguin" biscuit still contains hydrogenated oil. One tfX supporter was surprised by this because the UB website www.123healthybalance.com states that:

"All of United Biscuit's crisps and snacks use oils that are free from Trans Fatty Acids."

When he complained UB explained that:

We as a company would regard Penguin as a biscuit. What we call crisps and snacks - for which the statement is correct, is a different area of the business to the ''biscuit' side, which Penguin comes under. Although we are aware that our industry is often termed the 'snacks' industry, the 'biscuits' market is still a huge separate one. The job of completely making all biscuits free of TFA's is not an easy one, although we have made great strides in this. Penguin as stated, does contain partially hydrogenated vegetable fat as still do a number of biscuits, manufactured by ourselves and others in the market place. We can however reassure you that we are aware of the issue and will be doing even more in this area in the future to address consumers needs.

We are happy to give them an idea: Kit Kat now uses butter oil for the soft fill. It is hard to see why Penguin should not do the same.

The broader UB policy on trans fats is:

"In general terms, United Biscuits (UB) supports scientific consensus that, in a balanced diet, an adult should derive no more than 35% of energy from fat. Within that 35%, saturated fat should contribute no more than 11% of total energy and trans fatty acids no more than 2% ... With respect to trans fatty acids, UB products are not particularly high in these fats. However, where possible and consistent with quality considerations, UB is committed to reduce the levels of TFAs in its products."

See the full policy here.

Contact

Website: www.unitedbiscuits.co.uk and www.123healthybalance.com.