The ‘déjà vu’ of trans fats, by Elmer Huerta

The last week, Indecopi’s Consumer Protection Commission N ° 3 imposed a precautionary measure and ordered the cessation of production and marketing of the following products: marbled bimboletes from Bimbo, panettone with raisins and candied fruits from Bell’s and the Cheese Tris snacks from Frito Lay. The decision was made because those products would contain Trans fat in an amount greater than that established by current regulations.

The Law for the Promotion of Healthy Eating for Boys, Girls and Adolescents (Law 30021) of 2013 constitutes one of the most important public health instruments of this century in Peru. , caused –in part– by the excessive consumption of industrialized, processed and ultra-processed foods.

The standard, among other things, ensures that the amounts of sugar, salt and saturated fat – whose excess is associated with obesity, hypertension, heart attacks, strokes and cancer – in processed and ultra-processed foods are adjusted to levels that do not affect health. It also regulates the content of harmful Trans fat, a product added to many industrialized foods to increase their shelf life.

The standard that controls the content of trans fats was regulated by the Supreme Decree 033-2016-SA, of July 27, 2016. This

“Trans fats were initially used to replace the animal bait used to make candles and soaps.”

In the first stage, it was established that the inputs (fats, vegetable oils and margarines) should not have more than two grams of trans fat per 100 grams of solid product or 100 milliliters of liquid product, and that industrially processed foods and beverages

In the second stage, the norm established the total elimination of Trans fat in processed foods and beverages sold in Peru, and a very long term of four and a half years was given for its fulfillment. That term expired on July 17 of this year.

Then, and according to the current regulation, trans fats should not be present in processed or ultra-processed drinks and foods that are sold in Peru.

-Trans fat-

by chemically bombarding a liquid vegetable oil (cottonseed, for example) with hydrogen molecules, which turns the oil into a solid fat.

Trans fats were initially used to replace the animal bait used to make candles and soaps. By inventing electric light and decreasing the demand for candles, the Procter & Gamble (P&G) company it used its surplus trans fat and marketed it as shortening or margarine, under the name Crisco.

Thanks to a cunning advertising campaign, in which a free cookbook, P&G convinced housewives in 1911 that – because products made with margarine did not turn rancid –

This property was exploited by the food industry to use trans fats as the fat of choice in the preparation of hundreds of processed foods. In addition, due to their high resistance to heat, they were used to fry food dozens of times without changing the oil.

–Poison for the heart–

The first study which drew attention to the impact of trans fats on heart health was published in Wales in 1981, and in 1993 Harvard University experts concluded that the consumption of trans fats caused approximately 100,000 heart attacks each year in the United States, while the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that

That is why dozens of consumer defense organizations around the world have fought so that the Trans fat are eliminated from industrialized products that are sold to the public. Hence the importance of the Peruvian standard, which has not been met by food manufacturing companies.

-Corollary-

History is full of confrontations between public health and industries, perhaps because the objective of one is the well-being of the population; and of the other, the economic gains.

Commenting on Indecopi’s decision, the Avanza País congressman Alejandro Cavero appeals to one of the favorite sayings of the tobacco industry of the 70s and affirms: “Freedom is the right of citizens to decide.” That is true, Mr. Congressman, but for everyone, only in this way, the sacred right to exercise freedom of choice is guaranteed.

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