Study shows fewer foods contain harmful trans fats

A recent study conducted by the Centre for Food Safety has shown that there are now fewer food samples containing excessive amounts of trans fats compared to a few years ago.

Out of 149 food samples tested by the centre, only six exceeded the trans fat guideline set by the World Health Organization. The tested foods mainly included baked or fried items like margarines, biscuits, cakes, and chips. In a study conducted in 2019, one-fourth of the samples had excessive trans fats.

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Trans fats are harmful to our heart health because they increase the levels of “bad” cholesterol while reducing the levels of “good” cholesterol in our blood.

Some of the food samples that still contained too much trans fat included egg tarts, deep-fried Chinese dough sticks, and soup with puff pastry.

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Ray Hung, a senior chemist at the centre, said that these foods were likely made with partially hydrogenated oils, which are the main source of industrially produced trans fats.

Starting from December 1, there will be a ban on the use of partially hydrogenated oils.

The centre said that when the bakeries and restaurants concerned were informed of the test results, they quickly changed their recipes.

“They could easily reformulate their products and [within] just a couple of days they contacted us for follow-up, so I think that would be easy if they asked their suppliers to check the ingredient list,” he said.

Terence Cheung, the centre’s risk assessment and communications consultant, mentioned that the catering industry can easily find healthier ingredients to replace partially hydrogenated oils.

“In overseas countries such as the United States and Singapore, they have already banned the use of partially hydrogenated oils for quite some time… so I think there is no difficulty for the food trade to source ingredients free of partially hydrogenated oils,” he said.

He advised the public to check food labels and maintain a balanced diet to avoid consuming excessive amounts of trans fats.

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