Fine, jail or both for selling ingredients and food flouting 2g limit
By Poon Chian Hui, The Straits Times, 9 Mar 2012
FIVE times a week, housewife Doreen Tay, 56, puts bread, pastries and curry puffs on her family's breakfast table.
It has occurred to her that these foods may be unhealthy for her husband and two children, one of whom is overweight.
But she says: 'What can I do? I don't know what the shops use to make their bread.'
When new trans-fat limits kick in this May, consumers like her can rest assured that what they eat will have less of this harmful fat.
It is raw ingredients of these food items - margarine, shortening and cooking oil - that the laws are targeted at.
From May, the ingredients that are used in the locally made pastries and curry puffs Madam Tay buys will not be allowed to contain more than 2g of trans-fat for every 100g of their weight.
This was announced by Minister of State for Health Amy Khor in the Budget debate on Wednesday.
Imported processed or packaged foods that may have trans-fats and oils, such as biscuits and potato chips, do not fall under these new regulations. This is because many of these imports are also sold to countries in which trans-fats limits are already in force, and where trans-fat labelling is compulsory.
To allow time for importers and retailers here to run down their stocks of raw ingredients high in trans-fat, import and sale of such products will barred only from May next year.
After that, those who flout the rules may be fined up to $5,000; subsequent offenders may be fined up to $10,000, jailed up to three months, or both.
How serious is the problem of over- consumption of trans-fat?
The Health Promotion Board (HPB) has found that three in 10 individuals here eat more than the 2g daily limit recommended by the World Health Organisation.
And two-thirds of them are aged 18 to 39, the age group that tends to eat out more and snack more, said the HPB.
Consumers like Madam Tay see the wisdom of the move to legislate a limit on trans-fats, but sales officer Sam Lim, 41, has his doubts.
He said: 'Although it'll be better for health, I'm concerned it will affect the taste of the food.'
He pointed out that some food-sellers, in a bid to spice up their dishes to compensate for a loss of taste in the future, may switch to adding other ingredients that are just as unhealthy.
Among manufacturers, suppliers and retailers, there is generally less resistance. Some, being ahead of the curve, have already taken steps to comply and have found little difficulty doing so.
General manager of bakery chain Four Leaves Steven Ong, for example, said the chain switched to a healthier margarine at no extra cost last year, and has not received any customer complaints.
'If the taste, baking process and prices remain the same, why not?' he said.
A manager of a major manufacturer of cooking oil, margarine and shortening, who declined to be named, said partially hydrogenated soya bean oil is high in trans-fat, and that a substitute like palm oil can readily be used without compromising on quality.
Fast-food chain McDonald's said it has been using vegetable oil that contains less than 0.5 per cent of trans-fat.
Mr Wong Mong Hong, who heads the Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association, said the new rules are not that big a shock because other places have already taken the lead.
These include the United States and European nations like Denmark; closer to home, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea already have trans-fat legislations.
The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), which is implementing the regulations with the HPB, said supermarkets will be encouraged to source for and replace fats and oils to fall in with the new rules.
Supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice, which has more than 200 housebrand oils and margarines that already comply with the new legislation, has been working on lowering its trans-fat-laced products since 2009, said its director of purchasing and merchandising Mui-Kok Kah Wei.
That was the year that stickers with the 'Healthier Choice' symbol - a red pyramid - began to come with 'Trans-fat free' taglines as well.
Spokesmen for supermarkets such as Cold Storage and Prime said they will work with suppliers to find out what they need to do, including changing the labels on such food items.
The HPB said food operators had expressed initial concern that the new rules would raise their operating costs, but that manufacturers had managed to leverage on a new processing method to make low trans-fat oils.
'Although there are costs incurred, these are one-off and not substantial,' said Dr Grace Soon, chief nutritionist at HPB's Centre of Excellence for Nutrition.
She said the costs would largely be absorbed at the manufacturers' level.
Take, for example, Benzene International, which imports oils and fats from countries like Malaysia and Indonesia to package them for sale.
The company's managing director Narayanan Ellango said he may have to order tests for each batch of oil products he imports as a precaution.
'The tests are not troublesome but they will cost money,' said Mr Ellango, who estimated that each round of testing may cost the company up to $1,000.
Hawker Paul Liew, who cooks up seafood dishes at his stall in Alexandra Village, is not sure yet if his costs will go up. His top concern is the quality of the healthier oils he will have to use.
'If the quality is not good, the oil will turn black after two or three fryings. We will have to change the oil more often.'
What is trans-fat?
TRANS-FAT comes about when vegetable oils undergo the chemical process of hydrogenation to make them remain solid at room temperature and easier to handle.
This kind of fat is bad for the body because of its double-whammy on cholesterol levels: It increases the amount of 'bad' cholesterol in the blood while decreasing 'good' cholesterol levels.
Partially hydrogenated soya bean oil is the main source of such fats.
Margarine, shortening and cooking oil account for up to 70 per cent of trans-fat Singaporeans eat on average.
Studies have shown that consuming an additional 4g of trans-fat every day leads to a 23 per cent increase in the risk of coronary heart disease.
The World Health Organisation has described trans-fat as an industrial additive that has 'no demonstrable health benefits and poses clear risks to human health'.
Other than trans-fat, saturated fats also raise one's risk of heart disease. They are mostly found in animal fats, such as cheese and butter.
Trans fats: The heart of the matter
By Andy Ho, The Straits Times, 17 Mar 2012
MY SISTER, her husband and their two children, aged 14 and 18, eat out at a food court or cafeteria every weekday. They're not unusual, according to the 2010 National Nutrition Survey, which found that one in two residents in Singapore eats at a coffee shop, hawker centre or food court almost every day.
As a result, the average resident - Singaporean or permanent resident - takes in too much saturated fats - up to 40 per cent of total fats, or 10 per cent over what the Health Promotion Board (HPB) recommends.
Eating out so often exposes people to a very special type of saturated fat called trans fats. These clog up arteries badly. That's because such fats contain extra hydrogen atoms which are added to liquid plant oils to solidify them. The process prevents the oil from spoiling too fast. Such oils can then be repeatedly heated without their chemicals breaking down or tasting bad.
Trans fats are also cheaper than animal fats, like butter, which have no trans fats. Little wonder then that restaurateurs and hawkers love using them.
Compared to animal fats, plant oils are always liquid at room temperature and go bad faster. They can't withstand the high temperatures used in deep frying or on griddles and they make batter or dough runny. In frying the dough to make doughnuts, liquid plant oils cause glazes to crack because they don't solidify the same way that animal fats do.
Whereas only animal fats can harden at room temperature into, say, butter or ghee, plant oils will not do so unless they have some added hydrogen atoms. This is achieved by boiling plant oils in the presence of a metal catalyst and hydrogen.
This process of hydrogenation produces margarine, plant shortening and others generically called 'partially hydrogenated plant oils'. In the process, trans fats are created which harden and can then be used in baking to give pastry its fluffy texture that otherwise can be produced only with butter, ghee, lard or tallow.
Trans fats give baked products like cakes or breads their kou gan (Chinese for 'mouth feel' or texture) by adding moisture, lubricity, pliability, flakiness and airiness. They also help products remain fresh and look better longer, for example, by keeping the oil from separating out of peanut butter in the bottle.
But trans fats block up the arteries feeding the heart and brain, resulting in heart attacks or strokes. Not only do they increase the bad (LDL) cholesterol but they also reduce the good (HDL) cholesterol that scours the insides of our arteries clean. The latter is a side-effect that even the much maligned saturated (animal) fats, which do clog arteries, don't have.
From May, new limits on trans fats in food items are mandated for all supermarkets, cooked food outlets and food makers here. All margarine, shortening and cooking oil will be allowed to contain only 2g of trans fats per 100g, or 2 per cent, the limit recommended by the World Health Organisation.
According to HPB, three in 10 persons here consume over the 2g daily limit. These folks eat out a lot and snack more often on commercially baked and fried foods. With the change, a curry puff with 4g of trans fats now will have under 0.5g of them. You would also want to avoid too much of pastry, cake, doughnut, prata, pie, pizza, crispies or biscuits, say.
The epidemic of heart disease that began in the mid-20th century may not have been caused, as is popularly believed, by a modern diet too high in saturated (animal) fats. The culprit was likely trans fats being introduced into the food chain.
In 1999, the famous Framingham Study which had followed 832 men for 21 years reported that margarine intake significantly increased the risk of heart attacks in men. Next, the huge Nurses' Health Study showed that trans fats doubled the risk of heart disease in women.
Other large studies indicate that a given amount of trans fats causes more heart disease than the same amount of saturated (animal) fats. The Institute of Medicine, which advises the US government, concluded in 2002 that the only safe level of trans fat in the diet was zero.
Fast-food chain McDonald's says it already uses no trans fats in all its outlets here. Actually, the HPB defines foods cooked in oil with less than 0.5g trans fats per 100g oil as having zero trans fats.
This is what is reflected on the 'Nutrition Information' label or 'Nutrition Facts' panel on the box or wrapping. That is, if the label or panel says zero trans fats but 'partially hydrogenated' or 'hydrogenated' plant oils are found in the ingredients list, then that item actually has trans fats but under 0.5g of them.
Also from May, retailers and manufacturers may be expected to use special signs such as 'trans-free', 'virtually trans-free', or 'trans-reduced' and so on. This would be in addition to the listing of the amount of trans fats as a line item on the nutrition information panel.
However, such 'no trans fats' signs may bamboozle consumers into thinking that the food item concerned now has less fats and thus fewer calories than before. Yet whatever the replacement fats may be, they will also carry the same amount of calories as well.
It is always bad to consume too many calories, so while going trans fats free is good, remember to watch the calories too.
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