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Regulation and Supervision Trend of Trans Fat in China

On September 9, 2020, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, [1] reiterated that the consumption of industrially-produced trans fats was estimated to cause around 500,000 deaths per year due to coronary heart disease. In a time when the whole world is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO states it will make every effort to protect people's health, including fulfilling the goal of eliminating industrially-produced trans fats from the global food supply by 2023.

This goal is a WHO priority, first raised in the 13th General Programme of Work. In order to guide governments to achieve this goal, a WHO REPLACE action framework [2] was launched in May 2018. It was also emphasized there that WHO will support the Member States to replace industrially-produced trans fats with healthier oils and fats.

Given China is one of the Member States, this article will analyze the supervision of trans fat in China at present and predict the supervision trend in the near future to all stakeholders.

Basic information about Trans Fat

  • Where does trans fat come from?

Trans fat, also called trans fatty acid (TFA), is unsaturated fat that comes from either natural or industrial sources. It can be produced during the industrial partial hydrogenation of vegetable oil but is also naturally present in the meat, fat and dairy products of ruminants (cows and sheep).

  • Possible hazard

Compared to the small amount of trans fat that occurs naturally in food, industrial-produced trans fat is the primary concern to people's health. As revealed by WHO [3], high TFA intake increases the risk of death from any cause by 34%, coronary heart disease deaths by 28%, and coronary heart disease by 21%. Each year around 540,000 deaths worldwide can be attributed to the intake of industrially-produced trans-fatty acids. 

Therefore, WHO suggests limiting the consumption of trans fat (both industrially-produced and naturally-occurred from ruminants) to less than 1% of total energy intake, which translates to less than 2.2 g/day for a 2,000-calorie diet.

Supervision in China

To control the TFA intake level, China adopts three types of magagement measures.

  • Implement trans fat labeling on prepackaged food

According to China's GB 28050-2011 General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods [4] and its Q&A document [5], it is compulsory to indicate the TFA content when:

  1. the hydrogenated and (or) partially hydrogenated oil and fat are contained in food ingredients or used during the process of production;

  2. the enterprise makes claims of the trans-fatty acid, i.e., "zero trans fat" or "no trans fat." The threshold value to label "zero trans fat" or "no trans fat" is 0.3 g/100 g or 100 mL.

To products (e.g., artificial butter, shortening, non-dairy creamer, and cocoa butter substitute) that do not use hydrogenated oil or to products of which the trans fat was naturally-occurred, the content of trans fat can be labeled voluntarily.

  • Offer diet suggestions

The 2016 Chinese Dietary Guidelines [6] suggested that the daily intake of trans fat should be less than 2g per day.

  • Set the TFA limit in infant formula

Compared to the measures adopted by other countries, China didn't form regulations to limit the TFA content in all prepackaged food but only in baby food.

According to the national standards listed below, it is forbidden to use hydrogenated oil and fat in both infant formula and complementary baby food. Especially to infant formula (including older infant and young children formula), the maximum amount of TFA (including the TFA naturally-occurred) shall be less than 3% of the amount of total fatty acid.

GB 10765-2010 Infant Formula [7]

GB 10767-2010 Older Infants and Young Children Formula [8]

GB 10769-2010 Cereal-based Complementary Foods for Infants and Young Children [9]

- GB 10770-2010 Canned Complementary Foods for Infants and Young Children [10]

Supplemental reading: Countries that have set up regulations to limit TFA content:

- The U.S. [11] ruled in 2015 to eliminate artificial trans fat from the food supply, with a deadline of June 18, 2018. 

- In April 2019, the European Commission [12] set a regulation that the maximum amount of trans fat in processed food shall be less than 2%. To food enterprises that did not comply with this provision, a transitional period will be given to April 1, 2021.

- In India, the limit of trans-fats is regulated to be not more than 5% under Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations. In August 2019, India released a draft notification [13] and indicated food products in which edible oils and fats are used as an ingredient should not contain trans fat more than 2% by weight of the total oils/fats present in the product, on and from January 1, 2022.

Prediction of the supervision trend in China's context

So far, some countries have released regulations to eliminate industrial-produced TFA or limit the TFA content in prepackaged food, it seems China won't put forward stricter requirements due to the low intake level of TFA in China.

  • Risk assessment of trans fat intake in China

In 2013, CFSA (China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment) released a risk assessment report of trans fat intake in Chinese population [14] and reached the conclusion that the TFA intake risk was at a low level in China. According to the report, the average consumption of TFA in Beijing and Guangdong was 0.3% of total energy intake in 2011. The value of percentile 97.5 was 0.72%, less than the 1% as suggested by WHO.

The report is so authoritative that the data is still widely cited in articles, press conferences, etc., without any updates.

Comparison with other countries: intake of TFA

comparison-with-other-countries-intake-of-tfa.png

Source: CFSA 2013 risk assessment report of TRA intake in China

  • Experts' attitudes

Official authorities like CFSA [15] released quite a number of articles during the past decade to help the public understand that the low intake level of TFA in China didn't pose a hazard to consumers. Furthermore, since it's also inevitable to intake the naturally-occurred trans fat in our daily life, CFSA suggests people pay more attention to food labeling and try to consume as little of TFA as possible. Chen Junshi, an academician of China Engineering Academy, also expressed his attitude [16] early in 2008, "compared to the low intake level of trans fat in China, the excessive intake of the total fat is the biggest problem we are facing now."

- In 2017, China Food Rumor-Refuting Alliance held a press conference to underline the TFA intake risk is controllable in China.

china-food-rumor-refuting-alliance-held-a-press-conference-to-underline-the-tfa-intake-risk-is-controllable-in-china.jpg

  •  Consultation drafts of corresponding standards

As revealed by the consultation drafts of related standards, the requirements of trans fat remainsthe same as the effective version at present, which is a strong clue for us to predict that, at least in the near future, the requirements of TFA in China won't be changed.

Effective version at present

Consultation drafts

GB 28050 General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Food

The second draft of GB 28050 [17] released on August 31, 2020

GB 10765-2010 Infant Formula

The consultation draft of GB 10765 Infant Formula [18] issued on September 7, 2018

GB 10767-2010 Older Infants and Young Children Formula

  1. The consultation draft of GB 10766 Older Infant Formula [19] issued on September 7, 2018

  2. The consultation draft of GB 10767 Young Children Formula [20] issued on September 7, 2018

GB 10769-2010 Cereal-based Complementary Foods for Infants and Young Children

The consultation draft of GB 10769 [21] released on July 9, 2020

GB 10770-2010 Canned Complementary Foods for Infants and Young Children

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Conclusion and suggestions

Given that the TFA intake data was released seven years ago and young generation's high consumption of products like bubble milk, dessert, cake, fried chicken, etc., it is still necessary to monitor people's TFA intake level.

Moreover, it is also important to intensify the supervision of the TFA content in certain food categories. For example, although the average TFA content of vegetable oil is 0.86g/100g, the high consumption makes it the largest part of TFA intake (49.81%), disclosed by the 2013 CFSA report. To products like chocolate and sugar, the average value of TFA content was 0.89 g/100g, but the maximum value of certain products reached 15.6 g/100g in 2013.

CFSA suggested that food enterprises should further research and development new processing techniques for vegetable oil and to reduce the use of hydrogenated oil and fat, which has high TFA content, in bakery food.

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