Packaged food to be trans fat-free by 2022

New Delhi, September 22

India is on track to become industrial trans fat-free by 2022, with only 1.34 per cent of the newly tested processed food samples showing more than the permissible levels of ingredients.

The national food regulator today cited pan-India survey results to dismiss the perception of excessive usage of industrial trans fats in processed food products.

“The study shows that India is set to achieve its mandate of eliminating industrially produced trans fats by 2022,” said Arun Singhal, the CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

It has mandated to reduce the limit of industrially produced trans fats to not more than 2 per cent to make the country free from the industrially produced trans fats by 2022, a year ahead of the WHO guidelines.

To test compliance by the industry, the FSSAI with the Quality Council of India collected 6,245 samples of processed foods from six predefined categories across 419 cities. — TNS

Survey results

1.34% of 6,000 processed food samples show high fats

3% of packaged food item samples contain over 2% trans fat

AS PER WHO…

Increased intake of trans fat (more than 1% of total energy intake) is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease mortality

ALARM BELLS

Trans fat intake is responsible for 5,00,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year around the world