New Delhi: To reduce incidence of heart ailments, the Narendra Modi government is likely to roll out regulations for limiting trans fatty acids or trans fats in food items by this month, ThePrint has learnt.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the country’s apex food regulator, will mandatorily limit trans fats content in food items and oils to three per cent by 2021 and two per cent by 2022, against the present limit of five per cent.
“The industry has to be a little more innovative and pull up its socks to find ways on how to reduce trans fats from food items,” Arun Singhal, CEO, FSSAI told ThePrint.
In September last year, the FSSAI had proposed a draft regulation to limit trans fats in food products through an amendment in the Food Safety and Standards Regulations.
While limiting trans fat content has been voluntary till now, the new regulations will make the requirement mandatory for food business operators.
There are two broad types of trans fats found in foods – naturally-occurring and artificial trans fats – according to the AHA. Milk and meat products have naturally-occurring trans fats.
Artificial trans fats are generated in food items during an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid.
The artificial trans fats can be found in several food items, including doughnuts, cakes, biscuits, pizzas and cookies.
FSSAI – a wing under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – has been working on three main agendas that include fortification of food items, issue of High Fat, Sugar and Salt, and trans fats.
“Reducing trans fats from food items is not an impossible task. We have internally estimated that even in products which are assumed to be unhealthy, such as jalebi and samosa, some producers have managed to keep the trans fat levels within two to four per cent. Even some reputed chocolate brands are trans fats free,” Singhal said.