The nation's biggest food manufacturer is going to put its products on a diet.
Kraft Foods, the $30 billion leader in the food business, plans to cut calories, fats and sugar across its product line, cease in-school marketing and re-examine portion sizes.
The company, which will begin implementing the changes early next year, boasts 60 major brands and hundreds of products, including Oreo cookies, Oscar Mayer hot dogs and Velveeta process cheese.
Experts said the rest of the food industry will surely follow suit, as food makers try to avoid the kind of litigation and legislation that has bedeviled the tobacco industry.
Under the guidance of a global council of advisers, Kraft will review the nutritional content of every product, cap the portion size of single-serve packages, carefully examine the products sold in school vending machines and review all marketing to children.
Obese children are only one concern for big food manufacturers, said experts.
Fortune magazine characterized the threat facing manufacturers of snacks, cookies and prepared foods with a recent headline: "Is Fat the Next Tobacco?"
"We're certainly aware of the litigation and the legislation that's being proposed in state capitals across the country," said Michael Mudd, Kraft's senior vice president of corporate affairs.
"But we're making these commitments first and foremost because it's the right thing to do."
Last year, McDonald's was slapped with a lawsuit on behalf of two New York teenagers who claimed that its fatty foods were responsible for their chunky midriffs.
Atlanta dietitian Rachel Brandeis salutes the change.
"Food companies doing things like this are taking a positive responsibility in trying to help this epidemic of obesity," said Brandeis, an official of the American Dietetic Association.
Marion Nestle, author of "Food Politics" and chair of nutrition department at New York University, took a darker view of Kraft's motivation, pointing out that the company is owned by Philip Morris, a target of multiple tobacco lawsuits.
Nestle was just back from a recent conference of dietitians, lawyers and food activists brainstorming legal remedies to the problem of obesity in America, and suggested that it is the threat of court action that motivates Kraft.
"Every major food company will follow suit," Nestle said.
In the face of consumer criticism, Pepsi's Frito-Lay division will eliminate trans-fatty acids -- which generally have been linked to higher cholesterol levels and increased risk of heart disease -- from some of its products, including Tostitos, Doritos and Cheetos.
"It's not really news to us," said Elaine Palmer, a representative of Pepsico, adding that the conglomerate has been adding healthy alternative products for months and trying to improve the health profile of existing products.
Gene Grabowski, spokesman for Grocery Manufacturers of America, said this healthy segment has an annual growth rate of 12 percent, the fastest-growing segment in the $455 billion grocery industry.
He added that Kraft's tactics have been "months and years in the planning. This is an example of a marketplace responding to an issue, and the marketplace is where the issue will be resolved."
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has long been concerned with offering healthy alternatives to its sugary centerpiece, spokeswoman Kari Bjorhus said Tuesday. In this new environment, will the sugar content of Coke change?
"I don't think people want us to change Coca-Cola," said Bjorhus. "People need to make the choices that are right for them, and what we do is make a wide range of products to choose from," including diet drinks, water and juices.
New entries in the "better-for-you" category from Coca-Cola include Minute Maid juice with vitamin D and Dannon bottled water with fluoride, Bjorhus said.
"We're always looking at what consumers want and what consumers need."
Bo Emerson writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
