NYC (New York City) Health Board has proposed a law that will require city restaurants to stop using trans-fats, as they are known to cause heart disease.
Fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has announced removal of trans-fat oil from their food chain of 5,500 restaurants. The partially hydrogenated oil from soybean will be replaced by lionlenic oil from soybean, chosen after a research of 2 years.
Trans-Fat is manufactured by addition of hydrogen in vegetable oil resulting in creation of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. This fat is normally found in many kinds of fried & prepared food & beverages.
Harvard researchers approximate the number of deaths in America due to trans-fats is around 30,000 annually. British Medical Journal has warned about a 2 % increase in trans-fat consumption linked with an increase of 23 % in heart diseases.
"Trans-Fats result in longer shelf & flavor life for foods but their consumption can raise bad cholesterol or LDL levels which can increase heart related problems," said an analyst at RNCOS.
US citizens have shown a positive response for a ban on use of trans-fats in restaurants that will see a negligible amount of trans-fats used in preparation and will also require a few restaurants to display calorie information on menu boards & cards.
There are alternatives to tarns-fats. As per regulations, manufacturers are developing alternate fats & oils. Following which, KFC & other manufacturers have developed alternatives. Thanks to a new technique for refining known as interesterification, which can replace trans-fats at no additional costs.
KFC & others have developed safer alternatives but unfortunately, few makers are switching back to saturated fats that were used in the past & were abandoned as they caused heart related problems. If this is the case, there is no point in substituting an unhealthy substance for another.
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