Action plan for improving the fatty acid composition

The action plan for potato products has been set up by the VAVI, the Association for the Potato Processing Industry. Members of the VAVI are producers of deep-frozen and cooled ready-to-eat chips and other potato products. Activities that are intended to improve the fatty acid composition in these products have been planned up to and including 2010 within the framework of the Task Force for the Improvement of the Fatty acid composition.

The sector will make efforts concerning the fats that it uses in its products so that the total product can contribute to achieving the recommendations made by the Netherlands Health Council. The following initiatives will be taken by the members of the VAVI.

• Changing the fatty acid composition. As far as reducing the amounts of trans fatty acids is concerned the greatest advance has already been achieved. An important objective is the reduction in the content of saturated fatty acids by means of offering and supporting products that are pre-fried in fats containing higher proportions of unsaturated fats. Obstacles here are the price and the market. In some cases obstacles are also of a technical nature.
• Carrying out a feasibility study concerning the possible % reduction of saturated fatty acids within the production processes of the members of the VAVI.
• Recommending/supporting the use of better deep-frying fats for preparing food at home and in food service (we do the first deep-frying step; the second deep-frying step carried out at home or in food service largely determines the quality and the composition of the fat that the consumer eventually gets on his plate). These recommendations can be communicated on the packaging, by separate folders and/or sales folders, via internet sites and similar.
  VAVI is sponsor of the campaign Responsible Frying (www.friturenindehoreca.nl).
• Offering and promoting products and/or methods of preparation that lead to a reduction in the total intake of fat. These can be products that contain less fat and/or products that do not need a second deep-frying stage, such as products for preparation in a domestic oven, combi-steamer, hot air oven, impinger oven and similar.

N.b. a lower fat intake caused by an increase of products that do not require deep-frying as a final preparation stage will not show up in the VAVI survey but instead in the use of deep- frying fat by the end user, at home or in food service.