Assessment of Trans Fatty Acid Content in Widely Consumed Snacks by Gas Chromatography in a Developing Country

Abstract

Trans fatty acids have adverse effects on health, so knowledge of their contents in foods would enable people to make informed food choices. TFA levels when not available in food composition tables make it difficult to estimate dietary intake. With the aim to analyze and identify the actual amount of trans fatty acid present in selected Indian fast food items, triplicate samples of six commonly consumed snacks as well as the oil used for preparing the same were collected from three different places. The separation of fatty acid was done using gas chromatography. Trans fatty acid isomers of oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid were identified in all food items. The predominant trans fatty acid present in all the food items was elaidic acid (18:1t9). The total trans fatty acids in different food items ranged from almost negligible to as high as 14.58 g/100g food. Different amount of TFA was found in same food category sourced from different outlets which is a challenge in making regulations aimed at TFA reduction so as to decrease health risk.

Fatty acid profiling of 75 Indian snack samples highlights overall low trans fatty acid content with high polyunsaturated fatty acid content in some samples

“…High levels of PUFA observed in several samples in this study are in contrast to some of the earlier studies. Very few foods studied by Gupta et al (2016) and none of the foods analyzed by [7,8,10,18] have reported such high PUFA content in the foods. These results thus probably indicate recent consumer preference towards the PUFA rich sources such as sunflower and soybean oils over the conventional oils [24].…”

“…MUFA was also depicted as the most dominant class of fatty acids (range 42.7–63.9%) in only four samples: 10, Potato Chips; 15, Chakli; 47, Papadi; and 50, Fafda, all of which were non-perishable deep-fried sample (S2 Table). Most of the earlier studies on Indian foods have also indicated that MUFA were not the most dominant types of fatty acids in these foods [4,5,7,8]. However, few other studies have shown that groundnut, canola and olive oils [21–23], and some of the Cretan and Cypriot snacks [20] had highest levels of MUFA than any other fatty acids.…”

“…India, the second highly populated country in the world with enormous diversity in the food products and culinary practices, represents an ideal place for examining the fatty acid profiles of the commonly consumed snacks. A very few studies have been carried out in India for determining the fatty acid composition of the commonly consumed snacks [5,7,8]. In this study, we report fatty acid profiling of 75 samples of commonly consumed snacks collected from 13 towns.…”

Consumption of the trans fats and fats in adult females in urban and rural areas of Ludhiana: a population-based study

“…TFs of food items consumed were calculated according to the weight of food items consumed by participants. 4,5,8,11,12 TFs of cooking medium i.e., oils and desi ghee were also calculated. After this, TFs of food items and cooking mediums were added and calories were calculated.…”

“…The public at large does not have an opportunity to make informed choices which help in decreasing TFs intake as well as a decrease in health risk. 5 It is felt that there is an immediate need to make public aware of the ill-effects of TFs because India is home to the highest number of atherosclerosis cases in the world. 8 Importantly, in the Indian food-based dietary guidelines, guidelines for reducing TFs need to be included.…”