Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A Question for the Scientists

I recently found a deal on Rice-a-Roni and Pasta Roni, so I've opened up a couple of boxed side-dish mixes in the past couple of weeks. (Hey, it was practically free!)

All of them, on the directions, call for "butter or margarine or spread without trans fats."

Here's my question: do the trans fats in some spreads cause the spread to melt differently, in a way that would mess up the sauce in either texture or flavor, or have the Food Police invaded Rice-a-Roni? It's certainly no nutritional superstar even without the trans fats, with all the sodium that comes in each box.

So what's up with that?

4 comments:

  1. That's a good question. I know that when I cook Lipton rice packets, I leave the butter out all of the time and my family never misses it.

    I'm not sure about Rice a Roni, though.

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  2. I'm guessing it's because of the nutritional analysis. Does the box make the claim "no trans fats?" I can't imagine it would cook any differently with stick margarine -- which is full of trans fats.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The plot thickens...the Nutrition Facts claim that Trans Fat is 0g, yet if you look at the "Less Fat Directions," it tells you to sub olive oil for the margarine and use skim milk instead of regular. Reduces total fat by half and trans fat reduced to 0g from 2.5g per serving. So if you have to follow the "Less Fat Directions" to get 0g trans fat, they should say so.

    For the record, I use butter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good question! I have been using olive oil instead of the butter.

    ReplyDelete

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