Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 24
1 competed with its own brands of saturated fat margarines.
2 It is relevant to know how and why this happened.
3
4 Unilever at its headquarters in Vlaardingen, Holland,
5 established a major biomedical research programme to test
6 the accumulating evidence on the causative role for
7 saturated fats and the protective effect of polyunsaturated
8 fats. The Vlaardingen research group established an
9 international reputation for its in-depth and impartial
10 work which it shared with the international science
11 community. One of the spin offs from this work was the
12 discovery that prostaglandins, important regulators of
13 blood vessel behaviour homeostasis and cell adhesion, were
14 derived from arachidonic acid, itself a metabolite of
15 linoleic acid (the parent omega 6 fatty acid referred to
16 before). Many felt that the Unilever author of this work,
17 Professor David van Dorp should have shared the Nobel prize
18 given to Sir John Vane, Bengt Samuelsson and Sune Bergstrom
19 in 1982. Importantly, it was this 'in house' work which
20 persuaded the Unilever board to encourage the development
21 of flora.
22
23 By the beginning of the 1970's 'flora' was becoming
24 established in the marketplace. By 1981 it had cornered
25 60% of the Australian market. There was close cooperation
26 Unilever's scientists with others and in the UK the flora
27 project was created to explain to the professional and
28 general public the need to act on the medical advice.
29 Flora is now a market leader. Other margarine
30 manufacturers and super-market own brands have followed the
31 lead and the sales of saturated fat butters and margarines
32 have fallen.
33
34 Although the total fat eaten in the UK has remained the
35 same, the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat (P/S
36 ratio) has risen three fold over this period. (i.e. a fall
37 in the proportion of saturated fat and a rise in
38 polyunsaturated fatty acids). There has been a similar
39 shift in the USA and Australia and some believe that the
40 rise in P/S ratio has contributed to the decline in heart
41 disease since the end of the 1980s.
42
43 Similarly, the milk producers, initially seriously
44 antagonistic to the evidence, responded by making low fat
45 and semi-skimmed milk available. The bakers, at first also
46 resistant to what would be a radical change, introduced
47 whole meal and whole seed loaves. There is now a wide range
48 of breads available whereas in the 50s, 60s and even
49 through to the 70s, bread was dominated by whitened flour.
50 Other sectors of the food industry, Kellogs for example,
51 have similarly responded.
52
53 It is interesting to speculate what might have happened had
54 McDonald's followed a similar policy. As with the changes
55 in bread, margarine and milk, this would require radical
56 re-thinking of their position. This re-thinking would be
57 of special importance to their expansion in developing
58 countries. It would have been then and is still possible
59 now for them to do so.
60
