The effect of the regulation on trans fatty acid content in Danish food

The content of trans fatty acids (TFA) in Danish food has been monitored for the last 30 years. In margarines and shortenings the content of TFA has steadily declined from about 10 g/100 g margarine in the seventies to practically no TFA in margarines in 1999. In order to efficiently reduce the health risk related to TFA, Denmark decided to impose a maximum level of 2 g/100 g fat on industrially produced TFA (IP-TFA) with the Danish Order no. 160 of March 2003, as labelling was deemed insufficient to protect the consumers, especially risk groups like children or people with high intake of fast foods. A broader range of food was monitored with 253 samples in 2003 and 148 samples in 2005 after the Danish regulation was in effect. The investigations show that the TFA content has been reduced or removed from the products with high TFA content originally, like French fries, microwave oven popcorn and various bakery products, so IP-TFA are now without any significance for the intake of TFA ind Denmark.