Comparative Assessment of Trans-Fatty Acid (TFA) Formation in Foods Processed by Traditional and Industrial Methods

Trans-fatty acids (TFA) occur in food products as a result of natural and technological processes. Quantitative determination was performed by Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) using the absorption band at 966 cm−1 and a calibration curve developed using glyceryl trioleate and glyceryl trielaidate standards, while method precision was 3.03%, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD). In order to evaluate the influence of the processing methods on the trans fatty acid content in food products, a multivariate chemometric analysis was conducted, using principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) analyses. Analysis of the 81 samples revealed the highest trans-fatty acid content in panettone (0.36 g/100 g fat) and the lowest in a boiled egg (0.15 g/100 g fat). It was observed that traditional Romanian products contained lower or comparable amounts of trans fatty acids than industrially processed products, which may be attributed to the use of basic, non-processed ingredients such as butter and eggs, the limited use of partially hydrogenated oils and more controllable thermal processing conditions. Overall, all analyzed samples complied with the current regulatory limit of 2 g of TFA per 100 g of fat. Moreover, even in the context of a festive meal, which is generally associated with higher food consumption, TFA intake did not exceed 1% of total dairy energy intake.