WHY IN THE NEWS?

As per the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) study, India is all set and is on the right track to becoming industrial trans-fat-free by 2022.

About:

• In India, only 1.34 percent of the newly tested processed food samples show more than the permissible levels of ingredients.
• FSSAI cited pan-India survey results and dismiss the perception of excessive use of industrial trans fats in processed food products.
• India has mandated to reduce the limit of industrially produced trans fats to 2 per cent in order make India free from the industrially produced trans fats by 2022, one year ahead of the WHO guidelines.

About the survey of FSSAI

To test compliance by the industry, the FSSAI collected 6,245 samples of processed foods, in association with the Quality Council of India. Samples were collected from six predefined categories in 419 cities. As per survey,

• 34% of 6,000 processed food samples were high in fats
• 3% of packaged food item samples comprises of over 2% trans fat

WHO guidelines on Trans Fat

According to WHO, Increased intake of trans fat that is, more than 1% of total energy intake, increases the risk of coronary heart disease mortality.

Casualties due to trans fat

Trans fat intake is associated with 5,00,000 premature deaths worldwide, due to coronary heart disease each year.

About Trans fat

Tran’s fat is considered as the worst type of fat. Unlike other dietary fats, trans fat or trans-fatty acids increases bad cholesterol and lowers the good cholesterol. A diet comprising of trans fat increases the risk of heart disease.