Trans fats in packaged food within limits

New Delhi, Sept 22: Food regulator FSSAI on Wednesday said that only 3.14 per cent or 196 of 6,245 samples of packaged food items contained trans fat exceeding 2 per cent.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has mandated to reduce the limit of industrially produced trans fats to not more than 2 per cent to make the country free from industrially produced trans-fats by 2022, a year ahead of the WHO guidelines, the regulator said in a statement.

To assess the market situation, the regulator said it has conducted a baseline survey for presence of industrially produced trans fatty acid content in the selected food categories. The survey was done in partnership with the Quality Council of India (QCI).

Samples of various packaged food items under six pre-defined food categories were collected from 419 cities/districts across 34 states/Union territories.

As many as 1,051 samples were collected in category 1—sweets, toppings and chocolates; 1,061 in category 2—fried foods ; 1,072 samples in category 3—bakery and confectionery products; 973 samples in category 4—frozen foods; 1,019 in category 5—composite foods; and 1,069 samples in category 6—oils, vanaspati, shortenings and margarine.

"In all, 6,245 samples of packaged products were collected on a random basis to ensure diversity and sampling of local packaged foods from different strata of food market," the statement said.

The trans fat content was determined based on the sum of trans fatty acid (TFA) isomers, i.e. elaidate and linoelaidioate, and calculated in terms of fat content in the processed food samples in selected testing laboratories.

"The results revealed that only 3.14 per cent (196 samples) contained trans fat exceeding 2 per cent," it added.

About 90 per cent (176 samples) of the 196 samples that exceeded 2 per cent trans fat belonged to the category 6 (oils, vanaspati, shortenings and margarine).

The analysis of 5,176 samples collected from the other five categories of food products revealed that nearly 0.4 per cent (20 samples) contained more than 2 per cent trans-fat.

In category 6, 100 samples out of a total of 1,069 food products analysed had trans fat content of more than 2 per cent and less than 3 per cent, while 76 samples contained more than 3 per cent trans fat.

"The findings of the survey revealed that the food processing industry is positive about FSSAI's regulation for eliminating the industrially produced trans fats in foods by 2022," the statement said.

The FSSAI said the survey results "demolish the perception of excessive usage of industrial trans fat in processed food products." This study has shown that India is well poised to eliminate industrially produced transfats by 2022, it added.