2012: No trans fatty acids in Spanish bakery products

Abstract

Trans fatty acids (TFA) are strongly correlated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. Current dietary recommendations exclude bakery products from frequent consumption basically due to their traditionally high content of TFA. The aim of this work was to analyze the lipid profile of different bakery products currently commercialized in Spain and with a conventionally high fat and TFA content. Premium and store brands for each product were included in the study. No significant amounts of TFA were found in any of the analyzed products, regardless the brand. TFA content ranged between 0.17g and 0.22g/100g product (mean=0.19g/100g product). Expressed on percentage of fatty acids, the maximum value was 0.87g/100g fatty acids and the mean value was 0.68%. These data are significantly lower than those observed in previously published papers for these type of products, and pointed out the importance of updating food composition databases in order to accurately estimate the real and current intake of TFA.