Trans fatty acids are margarine

Fan Zhihong, associate professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at China Agricultural University, said that trans fatty acids, also called trans fats, are margarine or margarine. They are artificial vegetable oils produced through microorganisms and hydrogenation technologies during the process of manufacturing vegetable oil, vegetable oil products and vegetable oil information.

Trans fatty acids can cause arterial blockages

Trans fatty acids increase cholesterol content in the body, especially low-density lipoprotein protein supplement products, which supplement information cholesterol content, and also reduce high-density lipoprotein cholesterol content, which can prevent heart disease. Therefore, they are considered to increase cholesterol and cause one of the triggers of cardiovascular diseases such as arterial blockages.

Trans fatty acids are currently widely added to foods by food processors. Because adding trans fatty acids to food will increase the taste of the food and make the food more crispy and delicious. This is why people generally feel that the French fries fried at home are not as good as those sold in shopping malls or grocery stores outside.

A large number of foods contain trans fatty acids

"Not just French fries, many foods that ordinary people usually eat contain this harmful substance." Professor Fan Zhihong said. The content of trans fatty acids is very small in natural foods. The foods containing trans fatty acids that people usually eat basically come from foods containing margarine. Such as Western-style cakes, chocolate pies, coffee companions, hot chocolate, etc. However, trans fatty acids have different names, and are generally labeled on the product packaging with different names such as margarine cream, margarine cream, artificial fat, hydrogenated oil, shortening or vegetable butter powder.

So a large proportion of the foods people buy in supermarkets today contain trans fats.

Field investigation:

A lot of foods contain trans fatty acids

How many trans fatty acids are on sale in supermarkets? Yesterday afternoon, the reporter went to supermarkets such as Carrefour Shuangjing Store, Jingkelong Jinsong Store, and Century Lianhua Shuangjing Store to conduct on-site investigations.

The reporter found that none of the butter, cream and other products sold on the shelves had the word "artificial" labeled. However, Guangming brand vegetable butter has "refined from natural vegetable oils, and its main ingredients are vegetable oils, etc." in the ingredient list. Fan Zhihong, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at China Agricultural University, pointed out that if the words "refining" and "refining" appear, then trans fatty acids may appear during the processing process.

The reporter also found that the ingredients of Master Kong's egg yolk biscuits are refined vegetable oil, cyanide palm oil, cyanide soybean oil, etc.; the main ingredients of Nestlé Coffee Companion include edible cyanide vegetable oil. Fan Zhihong said that products with the word "cyanidation" in ingredients contain trans fatty acids.

Supermarket managers and customers have never heard of trans fats

The reporter asked a person in charge of dairy product distribution at Jingkelong Jinsong Store if he knew that trans fatty acids and artificial butter were harmful substances. The person in charge said: "I have never heard of such a thing as trans fatty acids."

The reporter randomly interviewed 4 customers, but none of them knew about trans fatty acids. A customer said: "To be honest, we China don't deal with butter, cream and other things much. It shouldn't matter."

Professional Survey:

Most people don't know the dangers of trans fatty acids

After the incident of increasing trans fatty acid content in McDonald's fries, Beijing Shenzhou Flagship Market Research Company conducted an attitude survey among 600 consumers who visited McDonald's at least once a month.

Among them, 77.7% of consumers do not know the concept of trans fatty acids, and only 25% of consumers roughly know the impact of "trans fatty acids increase human cholesterol content."

Experts stressed that in the absence of relevant standards and laws to guide consumers on how to eat reasonably, ordinary people should be responsible for their own health.

Professor Hu Xiaosong from the Department of Food Safety at China Agricultural University pointed out that although most of the public do not know much about the harmful substance of trans fatty acids and we inevitably eat foods containing trans fatty acids every day, people can refer to my country's latest "China Nutritional Dietary Guidelines" to standardize their own diet structure.

Guidelines recommend that people should not consume more than 25 grams of oil per day. This means that as long as a person eats a small piece of cake a day, he cannot put oil in three meals of stir-fried food and then ingest fat. Otherwise, he will exceed the standard and increase cholesterol.

Reality:

There is currently no trans fat testing standard in my country

He Jiguo, a professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at China Agricultural University, pointed out that although trans fatty acids have been proven to be harmful to human health, how much trans fatty acids are contained in food is within the safe range, and how much trans fatty acids a person consumes every day can ensure health. At present, my country's food safety department has no corresponding standards for these, and there is no method to detect whether or how much trans fatty acids are contained in food. Experts call for relevant departments to formulate health guidelines as soon as possible.

Trans-fat testing standards are under study

Experts also pointed out that an important reason for the current policy gap is that the public has not yet realized the health hazards of trans fatty acids. Even some university professors do not understand that trans fatty acids are artificial vegetable butter that people often eat. Of course, most food processing companies know very little about this.

Yang Yuexin, a researcher at the Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention and deputy secretary-general of China Nutrition Society, said that the Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety is preparing to apply to relevant national departments for a project approval to conduct research on trans fatty acid testing standards and methods.

The United States requires trans fat content to not exceed 2%

Due to the great harm of trans fatty acids to health, since January 2004, the United States has mandated all packaged food companies to label the trans fatty acid content on their packaging, requiring that the trans fatty acid content should not exceed 2%. The Canadian government also requires that trans-fatty acid content be stated on the label of prepackaged food and encourages the use of healthy alternatives to animal and vegetable oils with high trans-fatty acid content. Editor in charge: Sweet