Tracing artificial trans fat in popular foods in Europe: a market basket investigation.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To minimise the intake of industrial artificial trans fat (I-TF), nearly all European countries rely on food producers to voluntarily reduce the I-TF content in food. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of this strategy on I-TF content in prepackaged biscuits/cakes/wafers in 2012-2013 in 20 European countries.

Design

The I-TF content was assessed in a market basket investigation. Three large supermarkets were visited in each capital, and in some countries, three additional ethnic shops were included.

Results

A total of 598 samples of biscuits/cakes/wafers with 'partially hydrogenated vegetable fat' or a similar term high on the list of ingredients were analysed, 312 products had more than 2% of fat as I-TF, exceeding the legislatively d

SUBMITTER: Stender S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4039824 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature