General Mills still produces dozens of items containing trans fats, from Grands cinnamon rolls to some Pillsbury cookie mixes to the original Bisquick.

The Golden Valley-based foodmaker has been gradually reformulating its products to remove trans fats, but that process isn’t finished. Trans fats provides flakiness to baked goods, an issue at the home of Betty Crocker and the Pillsbury Doughboy.

And it became more of an issue Thursday, with the Food and Drug Administration, citing health concerns, saying it will require the food industry to phase out the additive.

“They still market products with trans fat, and they told us there are technical challenges — meaning shelf life isn’t quite as long, or that texture isn’t quite right,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group leading the campaign against trans fat.

In a statement, General Mills said it “had already been working quickly to reduce the use of partially-hydrogenated oil in products as the science began to shift on trans fats — and more 90 percent of our U.S. retail products are already labeled as zero trans fat.”

“But we will also need to move to respond quickly to FDA on this question, and we will,” the General Mills statement said.

That’s a warmer tone than General Mills initially struck with regulators. Back in 2002, the company said it “strongly opposes” labeling trans fats, as well as FDA guidance that “intake of trans fat should be as low as possible.”

Said Jacobson: “I think the big companies, like Kraft and General Mills, are kind of in the same ballpark, where they’ve gotten rid of most of the trans fat from most of their product. The bulk of the remaining trans fat might be in smaller companies and restaurants.

He added, “General Mills, they’re aware of the issue, they’re concerned about it, and having a government regulation saying, ‘Get rid of it’ would spur them to get rid of it.”

Schwan Food Co. has made a bit more headway in its efforts to curb trans fats. The Marshall, Minn.-based frozen foods company said it now has zero trans fats in 98 percent of its frozen pizzas such as Red Baron and Tony’s, and 96 percent of its overall portfolio.

“We have been working on removing trans fats from our products since 2004,” said Karen Wilder, Schwan’s senior director of scientific and regulatory affairs. That includes all of its products for schools.

The company is still working toward 100 percent no-trans-fats, but that requires reformulating products, and “some of our ingredient suppliers haven’t been able to find a good solution,” Wilder said.