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In a bid to reduce the risk of heart ailments from intake of trans fat (TFA) packaged foods, the government is mulling a cap of 10 per cent on TFA in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, an autonomous statutory body administered by the ministry of health and family welfare, has come up with a draft on this that it has presented to the stakeholders. It plans to introduce the cap by January 2010.
PI Suvrathan, chairman, FSSAI, told Business Standard: "Lower TFA in vegetable oils will automatically bring down the TFA content in packaged foods (fried in oil). Over three years, we plan to bring down the limit to 5 per cent."
Denmark, Canada, the United States and some other European countries already have a protocol on TFA.
Trans fats harm the body by increasing the cholesterol level. They also increase other harmful fats in the blood by reducing the helpful cholesterol.
In women, trans fats are said to double the risk of a heart disease. They are also said to lead to decreased cognitive function in older people. Trans fats are also harmful for children.
Industrially-manufactured TFA is formed during partial hydrogenation -- a process used by the vanaspati industry to harden and stabilise liquid vegetable oils. The TFA level in vanaspati oils can be as high as 40 per cent.
India's annual consumption of edible vegetable oils and fats is over 13 million million tonnes (MT). Of this, vanaspati comprises less than 10 per cent with an annual consumption of 1.2 MT.
The vanaspati industry in India is worth Rs 5,000-6,000 crore (Rs 50-60 billion) and employs 30,000-40,000 people directly, besides a large number of people in ancillary services like packaging and transport.
The regulation will affect companies like Dalda, Dhara, Kamani, Ruchi Soya, Agro Pack and Cargill. The industry maintains that the decrease in TFA to 10 per cent is accompanied by an increase in melting point of the product, which is higher than the current level of 41°C specified by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA). The government is unwilling to relax the guidelines regarding the melting point.
This has irked some vanaspati vendors. An executive of one of India's biggest vanaspati oil company, requesting anonymity, said: "Even in the US, 48 degree melting point is permissible. Science says that up to 50 degrees is safe."
He claimed that even Denmark, Canada and the US follow CODEX standards, which does not mandate any maximum melting point.
Another company representative said: "Limiting TFA is not just an issue of food safety but also of food security (vanaspati is available at the right price point for the masses) and food inflation (it's one of the cheapest sources of energy for the poor).
All countries in the world have taken a fairly long time for transition and so the government must allow for technological preparedness of the industry."
GM processed foods to be governed by FSSAI
While gentically-modified crops will remain under the environment ministry, gentically-modified processed foods will be governed by the FSSAI. The authority will work out a draft for this in March.
These are some of the steps the FSSAI has taken to consolidate food-related laws in the country. A couple of weeks ago, it introduced a code on advertising to check the "tall claims" of the food and beverage industry.
