Trans fat in many restaurant, takeout foods
CTV.ca News Staff
As Canadians become aware of the dangers of trans fat, many are now reading labels at the grocery store, looking for partially hydrogenated oils, vegetable margarine, and vegetable shortening.
But the dangers of trans fat don't just lurk in your grocery store. They're present in many restaurant and take out meals. CTV News conducted its own survey of restaurant and take out food to find out exactly where the trans fats are lurking.
Canadians spend almost $42 billion a year eating in restaurants or buying takeout food. Yet many don't realize that a lot of restaurant food is baked with or deep fried in vegetable oil shortening or hydrogenated oils. Those cooking processes create trans fatty acids, which have been linked to heart disease, diabetes and other health problems.
In two years, consumers will have the right to know how much of this dangerous fat is in the food they buy in grocery stories. New Canadian labelling laws will mandate the listing of trans fats in ingredients. But there's no requirement for restaurant menus to list their ingredients or trans fats.
So CTV News sent five popular restaurant or takeout foods to be analyzed for their trans fat content, in a bid to give consumers some idea of what they're eating.
The products were randomly selected, and other restaurants or take out stores that offer similar products that were not tested. The level of trans fatty acids may vary between products and brands. (For details, see accompanying chart).
We found trans fats in every product we tested:
- Five small chicken nuggets from a fast food chicken outlet contained nearly 4 grams of trans
- An apple danish from a donut shop contained about 2.7 grams of trans
- Two vegetable spring rolls from a Chinese takeout contained about 1.7 grams of trans
- And just one fillet of battered fish from a fish and chips restaurant dinner contained about 1.2 grams of trans -- and that's not including the trans in the fries.
- Even in pizza, which many might consider one of the healthier fast foods, you'd most likely ingest about 1 gram of trans fat in two slices -- most of it from vegetable shortening used to process the crust.
"And that amount, based on a nurses' study out of Harvard, is likely to increase the risk of heart disease by 20 per cent if consumed on a regular daily basis," says Prof. Bruce Holub of the University of Guelph.
It's important to note that there is some naturally occurring trans in cheese, but it amounts to three to four per cent of the total trans content.
Our survey was based on one lab analysis per product with a 20 per cent margin of error.
It's not just fast food that's delivering that undeclared dose of trans in your dinner. CTV surveyed some of the top restaurants in Toronto. Many of them fry their delicacies in trans producing oils.
Our tests show that even healthy foods like chicken or fish can be transformed into trans laden foods, an industrial fat that's hard to avoid without either banning them or enacting mandatory restaurant labeling.
"The challenge for restaurant operators is that they need to make the switch and still preserve the product quality and the taste and value consumer have come to expect," says Jill Holroyd of the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association.
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Chart with estimates of trans fat content of five popular take out foods
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Chart on 14 randomly selected foods popular with children and teens.
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Answers to your questions and tips on how you can avoid trans fat.
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What exactly is hydrogenated fat? An explanation here.
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CTV News contacted some food companies to ask them their position on trans fat
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Avis Favaro on the fight to ban the use of trans fats in processed food
Avis Favaro on the move to get restaurants to reveal trans fat content in meals
Avis Favaro reports Trans fat isn't listed on any restaurant or takeout menu -- but it's there
Medical specialist Avis Favaro looks at healthy alternatives consumers can use to replace trans fat
Avis Favaro finds children under age two may be most vulnerable to trans fat
Avis Favaro looks at the pros and cons of labelling for trans fat ingredients in foods
Avis Favaro with results of trans fat food tests
Avis Favaro explains how trans fats may be playing havoc with our health
Jennifer Tryon on new rules for labelling of trans fats
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