PAN-India survey on trans-fats shows encouraging results
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had carried out a baseline survey (PAN-India survey) in the month of June-2021 for presence of industrially produced trans-fatty acid content in the select food categories in partnership with Quality Council of India (QCI).
6245 samples of various packaged food items under six pre-defined food categories were collected from 419 cities/districts across 34 States/UTs.
The six predefined categories were 1. Sweets, Toppings & Chocolates 2. Fried Foods 3. Bakery & Confectionary 4. Frozen foods 5. Composite Food 6. Oil, Fat, Vanaspati, Shortening & Margarine).
Number of samples having more than 3% industrially produced trans-fat from category 1-5 are 8 (total samples picked up 5176) and Number of samples having more than 3% industrially produced trans-fat from category 6 are 76 (total samples picked up 1069).
Overall 84 samples only, i.e. 1.34% have more than 3% industrially produced trans-fat from the total of 6245 samples.
The findings of the Survey are encouraging and showed that food business operators (FBOs) are largely compliant with the regulations on Trans-fats. The survey negates the perception of excessive usage of industrial trans-fats in processed food products.
This study has shown that India is well set to achieve its mandate of eliminating industrially produced trans-fats by 2022.