THE FACTS

FILES

THE PLATFORM

Results achieved

The AKSV conducted a questionnaire among its members again in February 2007 after the efforts made in 2005 and 2006. The response was excellent, namely 98%. The results for September 2007 included production problems at 1 producer where hardened fat had to be used temporarily. These problems have been partially solved so that the results in September look significantly better.

We can give a fairly accurate picture of the fats and oils used both as ingredients and as deep-frying fat on the basis of the information received. Table 1 shows that there has been a significant reduction relative to the objective on a number of fronts (printed in bold).

Note: the percentages in the table below give the percentages of trans and saturated fats respectively in the fats used by the branch, thus not at end product level. The values have also been split into fats used as ingredient and fats used as deep-frying fat.

Branch association AKSV	% 2002*	% 2005**	% 2006**	% Feb 2007	% Sept 2007	reduction relative to 2002	OBJECTIVE
Total for the branch - trans fatty acids content	9.7	5.9	3.2	2.6	2.3	76.5%	reduction 50%
Total for the branch - saturated fatty acids content	29.5	30.1	28.0	24.5	24.7	16.4%	reduction 30%
Ingredients - trans fatty acids content	6.4	3.4	2.8	1.9	1.9	70.6%	reduction 50%
Ingredients - saturated fatty acids content	24.7	23.7	23.5	15.3	15.4	37.7%	reduction 30%
Deep-frying fat - trans fatty acids content	18.3	9.8	3.8	4.3	3.1	82.9%	reduction 50% or max 5%
Deep-frying fat - saturated fatty acids content	42.2	39.7	35.5	36.4	36.4	13.7%	reduction 30% or max 40%

* corrected by calculating the amounts of oils and fats used as deep-frying fat and ingredient separately
** corrected for incorrect % of saturated fat for palmoleine (40 instead of 12%) + missing tonnage of oils and fats also included    

Table 1 Results of survey carried out by the AKSV into the fatty acid composition of oils and fats used

Response

A total of 40 questionnaires were sent. The response was 98%.
From the 40 received and completed questionnaires 2 of those surveyed did not use any oil or fat, 1 did not report any tonnage and 1 did not complete the questionnaire.

Reduction of trans fatty acids:
It is clear that despite the corrections made both the percentage of trans fatty acids in the ingredients as well as in the deep-frying fats has decreased enormously in the last year due to an increasing use of vegetable non-hardened oils.
It can still be stated that in particular for snacks such as minced meat sausages, croquettes and spring rolls the trans fat content has become less than 1%, calculated for the whole (end) product. This has never been an issue for products such as salads, since liquid vegetable oils were always used already. (See further Figures 1, 2 and 3.)

The objective was to reduce the trans fat content by 50% for oil or fat used as ingredient. This has been more than met with the reduction to 1.9%. The same applies for the trans fatty acid content for oils and fats that are used as deep-frying fat by the producer. The objective here was also to halve these, and with a reduction to 3.1% that has definitely been more than achieved. The slight increase at the beginning of 2007 for deep-frying fat was more than reversed in September 2007 to a final reduction of more than 80%.

Figure 1 Average trans fat and saturated fat content used by AKSV members

Figure 2 Average trans fat and saturated fat content used as ingredient

Reduction of saturated fat:
It is clear that the biggest reduction has been achieved by the use of oil/fat as ingredient. Only the objective of reducing the average content of saturated fat to < 40% has been achieved for deep-frying fat. The cause of the increase is the same as has been mentioned when discussing the reduction in use of trans fatty acids.

One of the complicating factors for the further application of liquid oils is an increase in the cost price, which is still a taboo in the retail chain. As well as this, functional requirements and requirements relative to taste also play a role.

The expectation that the saturated fat content for oils and fats used as ingredients would drop by 30% was already stated in the Newsletter no. 8 of January 2007. This actually became almost 38%, which is exceptionally high since a further reduction in cooled ready-to-eat products such as salads and mayonnaises is almost impossible due to the use in particular of rape oil.

Figure 3 Average trans fat and saturated fat content used as deep-frying fat

type of ingredient oil/fat	percentage use	trans	saturated	type of deep-frying oil/fat	percentage use	trans	saturated
rape oil	51.9	0.2-2.0	7-8	palm oil	37.2	0.5-2.0	45-53
soya oil	18.7	0.3-2.0	15-15.5	palmoleine	22.9	1.0	40
palm oil	11.9	0.5-2.0	45-53	rape oil	14.6	0.2-2.0	7-8
margarine	8.0	1-12	12-43	sunflower oil	11.1	0.0-2.0	12
hardened palm oil	2.2	8-30	53-61	hardened palm oil	7.2	8-30	53-61
pastry margarine	1.7	12	35	cow fat	3.8	3.0-3.7	50-55
butter	1.2	4.0	60-70	soya oil	1.1	0.3-2.0	15-15.5
cow fat	0.8	3.0-3.7	50-55	deep-frying fat	0.8	1 - 7	13-21
shortening	0.8	1.0-2.0	46-49	partly hardened palm oil + rape oil	0.6	5	50
sunflower oil	0.9	0.0-2.0	12	lard	0.3	1-5	11-40
olive oil	0.6	0.2	14	vegetable oil	0.3	0.6-1.0	19-29
puff pastry margarine bulk	0.4	1.0	40	arachid oil	0.1	1.0	17
chicken fat	0.3	1.5	29	soya oil partly hardened	0.0	15	56
vegetable oil	0.2	0.6-1.0	19-29
vegetable fat	0.1	0.5-0.8	48-50
lard	0.1	1-5	11-40
arachid oil	0.1	1.0	17
sesame/soya oil	0.0	1.2	40
sesame oil	0.0	2.0	13.5
truffle oil	0.0	0.2	14
	100.0	1.9	15.4		100.0	3.1	36.4

Table 2 Overview of the oils and fats used as ingredients and as deep-frying fat (September 2007)

Other remarks

The following are given as the most important reasons for not completely replacing fats: price, taste and not having the same functional properties. As well as this, the composition of the fats used by a number of companies was so good already that no improvement or replacement respectively was possible.

Nine companies indicated that they would like consultation or to receive extra information about the fatty acid composition. Therefore, a meeting was organised in November 2007 for the members in which a presentation was given by a supplier of fats

Conclusion with reference to trans fatty acids

The results of the successive surveys show that the total trans fatty acid content in (meat) snacks produced by members of AKSV has been reduced by 76.5 % relative to 2002. Thus, the objective for trans fatty acids has been more than met by the AKSV.

Conclusion with reference to saturated fatty acids

The last survey has shown that the reduction in the total of saturated fat is about 17 %, while the objective is 30%. This means that the standard has, therefore, still not been achieved.
This is caused principally by the use of palm oil, palmoleine and hardened palm fat. These still form 65% of the total deep-frying fat used or 30% of the total of 20.5 million tons. If the hardened palm oil was to be replaced this would not only solve the saturated fat problem, but the trans fat content for deep-frying fat would also drop further.
As well as the hardened palm oil the margarine, particularly for pastry making, is also a fat that could be replaced, so that the trans and saturated fat content in the ingredients could drop further.