Trans Fat Sources

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19 Oct 2020

Trans fats are found in both animal foods and plant foods. But the story is interesting!

Natural Vs Artificial

Natural trans fats: Found in animal products only. Plant foods in their natural form have no trans fats.
Artificial trans fats: Derived from plant sources through industrial processing:
- Major source of trans fats: Partially Hydrogenated Oils (PHOs). They are produced in the industry for improving shelf life and texture of processed foods like hard margarines, vegetable shortenings and commercially baked goods like cakes, cookies, crackers, icings and so on.
- Minor source of trans fats: Certain oils like canola oil and soybean oil have small quantities of trans fats. These are produced during the refining process. [Note that oils are basically plant extracts, not plants in their natural form.]

Put together, trans fats are found in animal products, a few oils, and UPFs (Ultra-Processed Foods) containing PHOs (Partially Hydrogenated Oils). Trans fats are not found in whole plant foods (in their natural form).

WHO article: Nutrition: Trans Fats explains:

"Trans fat, or trans-fatty acids, are unsaturated fatty acids that come from either natural or industrial sources. Naturally-occurring trans fat come from ruminants (cows and sheep). Industrially-produced trans fat are formed in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oil converting the liquid into a solid, resulting in “partially hydrogenated” oil (PHO)."

Trans Fats In US

USDA estimates: Excerpt from How much trans fat is found in meat and poultry?

Only small amounts of trans fatty acids (or trans fats) are found naturally, primarily in dairy products, some meat, and other animal-based foods.

… but do such small amounts add up to something substantial when we consume such foods in large quantities? Yes!

USDA estimates: An estimated 20% of trans fat intake in USA comes from naturally occurring trans fats from animal foods!

Source: Chapter 6 of Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2005; USDA)

Note the caption for the table above:

Processed foods and oils provide approximately 80 percent of trans fats in the diet, compared to 20 percent that occur naturally in food from animal sources.

FDA estimates: The original source of data in Table 11 above is an FDA publication: Food Labeling: Trans Fats. In this publication, Table 1 (Average Trans Fat Intake of U.S. Adults From Food Groups) explains that 1.2g of trans fats come from 5 sources: (a) milk, (b) ice cream and ice milk, (c) cheese and cottage cheese, (d) frankfurter and lunch meat, (e) fluid & sour cream, (f) butter. An additional 4.6g of trans fats comes from a variety of "hydrogenated products" like bread, cakes, cookies, chips, candy, margarine, shortening, …

The table above may be visualized as a pie chart:

Source: Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, & Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero (2 mins, 2011)

Trans Fats Worldwide

A systematic review attempted to estimate based on published literature: Trans Fat Intake and Its Dietary Sources in General Populations Worldwide: A Systematic Review by Wanders et al, Nutrients. 2017 Aug; 9(8): 840. Excerpts:

"In 16 out of 21 (76%) countries with data on trans fat sources, mean intakes of animal trans fat were higher than that of industrial trans fat."

They clarify:

“Animal sources” of trans fat were defined as milk, cheese, eggs, meat, fish, butter, and “industrial sources” of trans fat were defined as oils and fats, biscuits, pizza, grains, seeds, nuts, chocolate, soups, savory snacks, meals, and restaurant foods. In specific publications and reports, clustered food items could contain both animal and industrial sources of trans fat. We regarded these food items an industrial source of trans fat. Examples were butter being clustered in a “fats and oils” food group, and ice-cream being categorized in a “sweet snacks” food group.

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