More misconceptions
The misconception of previous months:
Misconception of the month
I may not use any hardened fats
Hardening or hydrogenating is a technique that is used to change the consistency of a fat and to increase the stability to heat or oxidation. In this process hydrogen atoms are added to the unsaturated, double bonds in the fatty acids with the help of a catalyst. In the past high concentrations of trans fatty acids were formed during the partial hardening of a vegetable oil to a vegetable fat. New technologies make it possible, however, to have hardly any trans fatty acids formed during the process. When oils are fully hardened then no trans fatty acids are formed at all. At the same time it is a fact that a fat with a certain degree of hardness is still required for a particular functionality for many foodstuffs. Several techniques are available to the oils and fats sector for producing fats with the desired functionality and hardness but with an improved fatty acid composition. One of these techniques is hydrogenation. Fat mixtures containing hardened fats can in a number of cases have a better fatty acid composition for the same functionality than fat mixtures without hardened fats. It is for this reason that the Product Board MVO is lobbying for mandatory nutrition labelling of tha amount of trans fatty acids and saturated fatty acid, in contrast to the mandatory labelling of the terms hydrogenated or hardened. What after all is important is the fatty acid composition of a product (as little as possible saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids, and as much as possible unsaturated fatty acids) and not the techniques that have been used to produce this optimum ratio.
