IV. THE DAMAGING ROLE OF THE U.S. CONSUMER ACTIVIST GROUP CSPI

Some of the food oil industry (especially those connected with the American Soybean Association (ASA)) and some of the consumer activists (especially the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and also the American Heart Savers Association) further eroded the status of natural fats when they sponsored the major anti-saturated fat, anti-tropical oils campaign in the late 1980s.

Actually, an active anti-saturated fat bias started as far back as 1972 in CSPI. But beginning in 1984, this very vocal consumer activist group started its anti-saturated fat campaign in earnest. In particular, at this time, the campaign was against the "saturated" frying fats, especially those being used by fast-food restaurants. Most of these so-called saturated frying fats were tallow based, but also included was palm oil in at least one of the hotel/restaurant chains.

Then in a "News Release" in August 1986, CSPI criticized what it called "Deceptive Vegetable Oil Labeling: Saturated Fat Without The Facts," referring to "palm, coconut, and palm kernel oil" as "rich in artery-clogging saturated fat." CSPI further announced that it had petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to stop allowing labeling of foods as having "100% vegetable shortening"if they contained any of the "tropical oils." CSPI also asked for mandatory addition of the qualifier "a saturated fat" when coconut, palm or palm kernel oils were named on the food label.

In 1988, CSPI published a booklet called "Saturated Fat Attack." This booklet contained lists of processed foods "surveyed" in Washington, DC supermarkets. The lists were used for developing information about the saturated fat in the products. Section III is entitled "Those Troublesome Tropical Oils," and it contains statements encouraging pejorative labeling. There were lots of substantive mistakes in the booklet, including errors in the description of the biochemistry of fats and oils and completely erroneous statements about the fat and oil composition of many of the products.

At the same time CSPI was conducting its campaign in 1986, the American Soybean Association began its anti-tropical oil campaign by sending inflammatory letters, etc., to soybean farmers. The ASA took out advertisements to promote a "[tropical] Fat Fighter Kit." The ASA hired a Washington DC "nutritionist" to survey supermarkets to detect the presence of tropical oils in foods.