Analysis of Trans Fatty Acid in Some Foods by Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

Trans fatty acids (TFAs) are commonly found in bakery products, shortenings, margarines and cooking oils. High consumption of a high - TFA diet has been shown to be associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease. Due to these reported detrimental health effects of a high - TFA diet, total content of TFA in twenty four samples of bakery products and six samples of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils available at the market in Bangkok area were investigated on TFAs by using attenuated total reflection fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The range of total TFA content expressed as grams of total TFAs per 100 gram food sample in ten groups of foods were as follows: shortening 1.84 – 3.37, butter cookie 0.25 – 5.27, margarine 1.54 – 1.89, rich butter bun 0.21 – 0.88, crispy pie 0.41 – 0.58, brownie 0.18 – 0.67, croissant 0.14 – 0.83, cake cream roll 0.16 – 0.73, cracker ND - 0.15, and sandwich chocolate cookie ND - 0.14. The mean TFAs value in all selected foods ranged from 0.14 -2.43 g/100 g food while the highest amounts of TFA were found in butter cookie (5.07 g/100 g). The US Department of Agriculture recommends that the consumption of TFAs should be kept below 1 percent of total energy intake (2.2 g/day). Therefore, consumers should realize such health and avoid high TFAs - containing products.