Have the patience to wait at least till 2022 before you even think of plunging your teeth into a heavenly bar of sweet shop 'barfi' or into that bulgy but fleshy and crispy slab of bakery puff.
The state government has set itself the ambitious target of slashing the use of trans fat - harmful fat produced from vegetable fats for bakery food and for frying fast food - to less than 2 per cent of the total fat used for cooking by 2022. The percentage of trans fat in a common barfi is 42.5 and in a puff is 24.
“By 2023 we want to completely eliminate the use of trans fat,” said Dr Rathan Kelkar, the state's Food Safety Commissioner, at the sidelines of a health seminar organized jointly by Disha Foundation, not for profit health NGO and media consultant MD Niche. As per existing Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) norms, trans fat should not be more than 5 per cent of the total fat used.
But since the mechanism to identify trans fat is not widely available, it is reasonably estimated that in a state addicted to deep-fried delicacies from fried fish to banana chips, trans fat use could be in an alarming 15-17 per cent range.
So one of the first things that will be put in place is a trans fat laboratory where food samples can be tested for their trans fat density. “It would be futile to set a target without having the mechanism to measure the progress,” said Dr Bipin K Gopal, the state nodal officer in charge of non-communicable diseases.
Such a government lab, the first in the state, will be opened in Thiruvananthapuram by the end of June. There are, however, a few private labs in the state that tests samples for trans fats.
Baker's dilemma
But the trickiest part of the mission is to sensitise the food manufacturers, to tell them that their cooking, especially their habit of reheating used oil over and over again, is causing more harm than good.
“We have already had multiple rounds of discussions with those who run 'pappadam' units, bakeries, 'thattukadas' and restaurants,” Dr Kelkar said. Experts from the World Health Organisation, World Bank, Vital Strategies (a global public health NGO), and FSSAI led these sensitisation workshops.
“A big realisation was that these manufacturers were not using trans fat on purpose. They knew nothing of trans fat. They were just following a cooking method that was handed down to them. It also made their products tastier, and helped it last longer. The longer shelf life is because trans fat is highly stable. Many seemed completely unaware of the dangers. When told of it, they were ready to make amends,” Dr Kelkar said.
Here is one World Bank statistic food manufacturers in the state were fed: “Every 2 per cent of calorie intake that comes from trans fats increases a person's heart disease risk by 23 per cent.” In a state where over 30 percent of the adult population is hypertensive, reducing trans fat intake, therefore, becomes a matter of life and death.
Trans fat spotting
But before they were told of the evils of trans fat, these manufacturers had to be first convinced of this phenomenon's existence.
“For this we picked samples from many 'thattukadas' in Ernakulam city and sent it to a private lab. Suffice to say that most samples had trans fat far above the FSSAI limit of 5 per cent,” said Gopal, the state nodal officer in charge of non-communicable diseases.
Three ways to rid trans fat
The experts gave manufacturers three options. One, alternative ways of preparing their popular food products. Problems were, the taste would alter and the costs would swell. Bakers were not interested.
Two, manufacturers can purchase oil with less trans fat. This can be achieved by purchasing oil that has undergone a process called interesterification, which is a method to reduce the saturated fat content in the oil that makes the oil better suited for deep-frying purposes. Interesterified puffs, cookies, cakes and pastries are far healthier.
“There is a technology to put saturated oil through the interesterification process. World Bank has promised free technology for those willing to opt for this method,” the Food Safety Commissioner said.
The third option was fat replacers, ingredients that have chemical structure and physiochemical properties almost similar to fats. “These are not just less harmful but, quite crucially for the makers, will not alter the taste. But the cost would be high,” Dr Bipin said.
Stamp of health
Health labelling has been recommended as a way to beat the cost factor. “The government is seriously considering a mechanism whereby product made with less trans fat are colour-coded and labelled as 'trans fat free'. Products with such healthy labels can jack up their prices. It is the consumer's choice to eat healthy or not,” Dr Bipin said.
Types of fats
There are three types of fats: trans fats (found in hydrogenated vegetable oils, fast foods, pastries, deep fried food, chocolate), saturated fats (found in both vegetable fats like coconut oil and condensed milk and also animal fats like fatty meat, butter, ghee and cream dairy products), and unsaturated fats (found in both polyunsaturated fats like corn oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil and monounsaturated oils like olive oil, peanut oil, avocado and nuts).
Trans fat and saturated fats are said to be harmful, the former especially so.
