Worldwide comparison on trans fatty acids content in edible fats and oils: current trends and future challenges

In view of the impact of trans fatty acids (TFA) intake on human health, these have been related with multiple cardiovascular risk factors and are associated with higher risk of coronary heart disease. One of the sources of TFA is partial hydrogenation which converts liquid vegetable oils into solid or semi-solid fats with appropriate melting properties suitable for the production of shortenings and margarines, increasing oxidation stability and the shelf-life of the oil. In this study a worldwide comparison regarding the TFA content in edible oils and fats was performed. Oils and fats, from vegetable and animal origin, are essential ingredients for a variety of food products. The major dietary sources of TFA are foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, namely butter, shortenings and/or margarines, while edible vegetable oils, in general have low contents. The content of TFA from vegetable oils can increase when subjected to heating, for example when cooking methods such as deep-fat frying and baking in the oven are used. However, TFA formation strongly depends on several factors, namely, frying conditions (type of fryer, duration and temperature), frying material (oil/fat and the food itself), among others. In conclusion, a great variability between countries was observed for example for margarines, where Canada is one of the countries with the highest percentage of TFA (42.9% of total fatty acids) for margarines produced with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. On the other hand, in Germany, Portugal, Austria and Canada as well, the identified margarines with lower content of TFA are mainly produced with non-hydrogenated fats. With respect to edible vegetable oils, in general, these have lower contents of TFA than margarines, shortenings and butters.

This work was funded by National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, I.P., under the project “PTranSALT” (2012DAN828). Tânia Gonçalves Albuquerque acknowledges the PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/99718/2014) funded by the FCT, FSE and MEC.

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