Dive Brief:
- During a Q2 2014 earnings call Wednesday, JM Smucker CEO Richard Smucker said he doesn't expect the FDA's crackdown on partially hydrogenated oils to have a material impact on business, as the industry and his company have been responding to changing consumer preferences in the past few years.
- Crisco shortenings, despite containing less than 0.5g trans fat per serving, still contain small amounts of partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils, and the company's Uncrustables frozen sandwiches have partially hydrogenated soybean oils.
- Despite lawsuits regarding the healthiness of both of those products, the company says it is confident it can reformulate the products prior to the enforcement of any PHO ban.
Dive Insight:
Smucker fully expects PHOs to be phased out of his company's products prior to any ban taking effect, as the company has apparently been preparing for such a day (or at least paying attention to consumer concerns about the ingredient) for some time now. According to Smucker's U.S. retail consumer foods president, Paul Smucker Wagstaff, R&D costs won't increase as a result of any ban because the bulk of that work has already been done.
