Is Trans Fatty Acid Still an Issue for Policy Makers in Iran? A Technical Report

In recent decades, the oil industry has changed its direction toward vegetable oil use instead of animal fats due to various reasons such as a small numbers of animal fat resources and high saturated fatty acids content in animal fats. Therefore, different modification processes have been used to alter the physicochemical properties of vegetable oils, which lack functionality and oxidative stability in their native form. Hydrogenation process is a common way to produce plastic fats with different functionality in order to formulate different bakery fats, spreads and margarines. Unfortunately, formation of trans fatty acids (TFAs), which have several negative impacts on human health, is the consequence of this process. Therefore, international and national organizations have established legislations and policies to reduce or preferably eliminate TFAs from hydrogenated vegetable oils. The objective of this study is firstly to review international and national legislations as well as the current status of TFAs in food products in Iran and worldwide, to discuss the gaps. Secondly, the strategies to address these gaps will be proposed. Through this article we will show that despite great efforts having been made in Iran, there is still room to make the documented policies and their conformities with each other to minimize the amount of TFAs in food products much more efficient.