Indian Food Regulators Reduce Permitted Levels Of Trans-Fats In Edible Oils

Indian food regulators' move to reduce trans-fat content in edible oils has been termed by an environment advocacy group as an important milestone in controlling non-communicable diseases in the country and urged to bring it to "near-zero levels".

Recently the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has reduced permitted trans-fats content in edible fats and oils in the country from 10 to 5 percent.

"The five percent limit is a step in the right direction. Although slowly, we have progressed from having a 10 percent limit first set a couple of years ago. We should aim to reduce it further to near-zero levels," said, Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Sunita Narain.

The CSE said, FSSAI in its latest notification on the issue has reduced the maximum permitted amount of trans-fats to 5 percent (by weight) in hydrogenated vegetable oils, margarine and fat spreads and interesterified vegetable fat.

Trans-fats are formed on hydrogenation of vegetable oils while making them vansapati.

"India has a huge and growing number of people suffering from non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Consumption of junk foods is also rising across all sections of society and age-groups. It is no longer limited to urban areas. Keeping this in view, the new regulation is an important milestone in containing the burden of non-communicable disease," said Chandra Bhushan, Deputy DG CSE.

Globally, consumption of trans-fats through cooking medium or ultra-processed junk foods was strongly linked with non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been advising countries to limit its consumption while in a similar attempt, the US in June recognized the use of partially hydrogenated oils as unsafe and banned its use by food product manufacturers within three years, the CSE said.

CSE, in its 2009 study on 30 brands of cooking oils, found trans-fats contents in all vanaspati brands much higher than the prescribed standard.

Source: PTI