WHO Finds Nearly 10% of Indonesian Foods High in Trans Fat

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The World Health Organization (WHO) Indonesia conducted a study on the trans fat content in Indonesian foods and found that almost 10 percent of them have trans fat levels surpassing the organization’s recommended safe limit.

“We found that 11 out of 130 or 8.46 percent of foods have a trans fat content exceeding 2 grams per 100 grams of fat,” WHO Indonesia Team Lead NCDs and Healthier Population, Lubna Bhatti, said in a press conference in Jakarta on May 6.

The study covered 130 oil-based food products in the country, which were categorized into four groups based on their nature. The first category comprised fats and oils, such as cooking oil, salad oil, butter, shortening, and ghee, followed by margarine and jam in the second category. The third category included packaged foods such as biscuits, cakes, wafers, sponge cakes, and bread, while the fourth category consisted of ready-to-eat foods such as fried foods and baked foods.

Lubna warned that consuming excessive quantities of trans fatty acids has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and coronary heart disease deaths. “Every year, more than 500,000 people die from heart disease. In Indonesia, the number of cases of non-communicable diseases continues to increase, reaching 70 percent,” she said.

The WHO recommends that adults limit their consumption of trans fats to less than one percent of their total energy intake, for example, less than 2.2 grams for 2,000 daily calories.

She further expressed concern that high trans fats consumption by children could lead to an upsurge in childhood obesity in the future, which is strongly associated with several non-communicable diseases, including heart disease and diabetes mellitus. Various curative health services for these diseases would certainly consume a large part of national budgets.

In these findings, WHO has provided two recommendations. The first one is to establish regulations that eliminate industrial trans fats by restricting their content to only 2% of the total fat content in all food products.

“Second, Indonesia needs to prohibit the production, use, sale, and import of Partially Hydrogenated Oil (PHO),” Lubna remarked.

Indonesian Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono lauded the WHO team for conducting the research and agreed with the importance of eliminating trans fats. He would also try to draft regulations to restrict trans fats in food in the country, “in an effort to reduce cardiovascular deaths.”

MITRA TARIGAN

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