Sunday, March 11, 2007
Some Bakers Forced to Drop Butter as Ingredient
When I heard that New York City had decided to ban trans fats, my first question was whether butter would go out the larder window. "Oh, no," said some - not experts, but then I don't generally chat with the cognescetti.
Then the other day there was this story in the New York Times about Starbucks insisting that the network of bakers supplying baked goods for the company's 8,700 stores (I could have sworn it had hit half a million) eliminate all traces of trans fat. But there ae small amounts in butter, cheese, and meat. So no more butter in your muffin when you get that double no-fat extra hot half-caff extra sweet vanilla mint latte. One baker interviewed for the article said even finding artificial fat without any trace of trans fat is difficult.
Here's the big question - what about milk? A cup of milk, according to an information graphic in the Times story, has .24 grams of trans fat, as opposed to the 3.12 grams in a quarter pound of butter. Somehow I don't see Starbucks steaming some non-dairy creamer. But then again, I don't know that they have to list the ingredients of the coffee - just the baked goods - which means we may see whether this was really for concern about customers, or PR. Reading a bit more into the article, it seems that half a gram per serving is the cut-off point for the chain. Lucky thing that, eh?
Then the other day there was this story in the New York Times about Starbucks insisting that the network of bakers supplying baked goods for the company's 8,700 stores (I could have sworn it had hit half a million) eliminate all traces of trans fat. But there ae small amounts in butter, cheese, and meat. So no more butter in your muffin when you get that double no-fat extra hot half-caff extra sweet vanilla mint latte. One baker interviewed for the article said even finding artificial fat without any trace of trans fat is difficult.
Here's the big question - what about milk? A cup of milk, according to an information graphic in the Times story, has .24 grams of trans fat, as opposed to the 3.12 grams in a quarter pound of butter. Somehow I don't see Starbucks steaming some non-dairy creamer. But then again, I don't know that they have to list the ingredients of the coffee - just the baked goods - which means we may see whether this was really for concern about customers, or PR. Reading a bit more into the article, it seems that half a gram per serving is the cut-off point for the chain. Lucky thing that, eh?
