High trans fatty acid content in common Indian fast foods

Purpose - Trans fatty acids (TFA) are deleterious to health and can lead to multiple diseases. The purpose of this paper is to study their content in Indian sweets and snacks (fast foods). Design/methodology/approach - The paper used the food composition and analysis tables of the Indian National Institute of Nutrition to determine fatty acid composition of common nutrients. Separate tables provide nutrient composition of various Indian sweets and snacks including methods of preparation and amount of ingredients used. The paper calculated detailed nutritive value of these fast foods with focus on fatty acid composition using these tables. The nutritive values of more than 200 Indian sweets and snacks were determined and are presented. Findings - The study shows that Indian sweets and snacks are very energy-dense with calorie content varying from 136 to 494 kcal/100 g in sweets and 148-603 kcal/100 g in snacks. TFA content of sweets varies from 0.3 to 17.7 g/100 g and snacks from 0.1 to 19.8 g/100 g. This translates into 1.9-53.0 fat energy per cent in sweets and 1.8-52.0 fat energy per cent in snacks. Research limitations/implications - The study consists of analysis of secondary data obtained from raw ingredients. Many chemical changes occur during cooking and were not estimated. Originality/value - High dietary intake of TFA leads to cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and many chronic diseases. This is possibly the largest attempt to determine TFA content of commonly used fast-foods in India and shows that some of the traditional Indian sweets and snacks have high levels.