Trans-action.

It's a hidden killer, and it's in your food. But it doesn't appear on product labels.

On July 8, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally announced a long-expected ruling that will require food manufacturers to list the deadly trans fat content on their Nutrition Facts food labels.

Trans fat is created when hydrogen gas is bubbled through vegetable oil to create partially hydrogenated oil. It's the reason that Crisco stays solid, cookies fresh and crackers crisp. Partially hydrogenated oil can be found ill about 40 percent of the food at the grocery store, including some "low-fat" products most consumers regard as healthful. The body has no need for trans fat, which acts like saturated fat in the body and promotes higher levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the "bad" cholesterol, and lower levels of high-density" lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol. Until now, consumers have been unable to determine the trans fat content of their food unless they looked for the phrase "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" on ingredient labels.

Following a decade of lobbying by health activists, the new requirement should give consumers a chance to see which products carry the high-risk fat. However, the new regulation is weaker than the proposal issued by the FDA in 1999. For instance, the new labels ...