Latin American government officials met in Mexico City this week to develop a regional road map to remove trans fats from food. We round up some of the region's regulatory action.
Latin American government officials met in Mexico City this week to develop a regional road map to remove trans fats from food. We round up some of the region's regulatory action.
© GettyImages/vasata
Trans-fatty acids (TFA) are fatty acids with at least one double carbon–carbon bond in the trans configuration.
They occur naturally in meat and dairy products from ruminant sources (cows, goats and sheep, for example) in small amounts.
The biggest source of industrially-produced trans fats is partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs). This process transforms the oil into a solid fat, increases its shelf-life and enhances the texture of the finished food product.
PHOs are commonly found in products such as cookies, cakes, ice cream, margarine, microwave popcorn, instant pasta sauces and soups and low-quality oils.
Photo © GettyImages/canyonos
A diet high in trans fats is strongly associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and related mortality. Globally, PAHO estimates that over half a million deaths each year are due to industrial trans fats, and 160,000 in Latin America.
As Latin Americans switch to diets featuring more ‘ultra-processed’ food – the sale of these products in Latin America has increased by 26.7% between 2000 and 2013, according to PAHO – health problems associated with trans fats have also risen.
The WHO recommends either limiting trans fats to a maximum of 2% in all foods or prohibiting partially hydrogenated oils, which are a major source.
Photo: GettyImages/Bloomberg
Under the 2008 Declaration of Rio de Janeiro, food manufacturers in the Americas voluntarily agreed to remove PHOs from their products.
“While significant progress has been made, elimination has not been achieved and an important lesson was learned: voluntary measures [are] not enough,” said PAHO.
In the past 10 years, only eight countries in the Americas have adopted regulatory measures to limit industrial trans fats in food.
Chile began in 2009, followed by Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, the US, Peru, Canada and, most recently, Uruguay in 2018.
Photo: © GettyImages/photovideostock
According to PAHO, this country-by-country piecemeal approach is not enough.
This week (July 17 and 18) it held a workshop in Mexico City with officials from the governments of eight LATAM countries to develop a roadmap to cut industrial trans fats from the food chain.
Participants included Mexican food safety authority COFEPRIS; the Caribbean regional office for standards and quality, CROSQ; and the Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP).
Details of the road map were not revealed. However, the Mexico City meeting came as PAHO gears up to present its regional 2020 - 2025 Action Plan to eliminate industrial trans fats from Latin America’s food supply to the Board of Directors in September.
The plan was approved by its Executive Committee last month.
Photo: © PAHO
There are no mandatory limits on trans fats in Brazil but manufacturers are required to list trans fat content on ingredient lists.
However, if a product contains 0.2 grams per serving of food or less, they can write 0 g in the nutrition table and claim the product is trans fat-free, something consumer rights organization IDEC is campaigning to end.
IDEC also says Brazilian consumers are being misled by the different names given to ingredients containing industrial trans fats, such as hydrogenated vegetable fat, partially hydrogenated fat, hydrogenated vegetable oil, or simply hydrogenated (‘hidrogenado’).
Brazil’s health and food safety authority ANVISA held a technical meeting on trans fats in December last year and is planning to launch a public consultation on the topic in 2019.
Patrícia Gentil, IDEC nutritionist who attended the multi-stakeholder technical meeting in December, said: "The only measure Brazil has to restrict trans fat consumption is mandatory nutrition labeling, but this is not enough to protect the population.
“Every country that has reduced consumption have done so by [taking] measures that restrict the use of industrial trans fat.”
Photo: A typical Brazilian breakfast of cheese bread. © GettyImages/ribeirorocha
In Mexico, the national food regulation of 2010 (NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010) requires manufacturers to list nutritional information for saturated fats, other fats, total sugars, sodium and energy but not specifically trans fats (unless a product makes a health claim related to fat or cholesterol content).
This year, Grupo Bimbo and other members of the International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA) including PepsiCo, Kellogg, General Mills and Unilever pledged to voluntarily reduce industrial trans fats in their products by 2023.
A Mexican group of researchers from the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí (UASLP) developed a method of organogelation that gives vegetable oils similar properties to margarine without creating trans fats in the process.
By adding plant extracts, such as the native Mexican shrub candelilla wax, the oil takes on a semi-solid structure. Details can be found in the study published in the journal Food Research International.
Photo: Mexican street food. © GettyImages/rustyl3599
In 2010, Argentina amended its food regulation, el Código Alimentario Argentino (CAA), giving companies two years to meet a 2% limit of trans fats in margarines and vegetable oils, and five years for the 5% limit in other products.
By 2014, almost 75% of food products complied with the limits and this increased to up to 93% one year later.
Dr Fabio Gomes, regional nutrition advisor at PAHO said Argentina’s approach to removing industrial trans fats from the supply chain was “innovative and pioneering.”
Photo: Alfajor, a traditional Argentinian dessert. © GettyImages/Aleksandr_Vorobev
In May last year, WHO launched a technical roadmap called REPLACE with six strategies to help countries cut industrial trans fats.
- REVIEW: Review the sources of TFA in food.
- PROMOTE: Promote their replacement with healthier fats and oils.
- LEGISLATE: Bring in legislation to limit their use.
- ASSESS: Evaluate and monitor the TFA content in food and changes in TFA intake at a population level.
- CREATE: Create awareness among food manufacturers, retailers and the public about the negative health impact.
- ENFORCE: Enforce the rules to ensure compliance.
To find out more, click here.
Photo: © iStock
