AMOUNTS OF TRANS-FATTY-ACIDS IN FOODS

The fatty acid composition of the fat in 197 food samples has been ana lyzed by gas liquid chromatography. The use of a 30 m capillary column coated with CP(TM)Sil88 permitted the separation of the cis and trans isomers. The trans fatty acid content of milk and milk products range d from 1.9 to 7.9%. Meat samples from ruminants contained 2.0-10.6% tr ans fatty acids. In pork fat the amounts were less than 0.5%. Sausages and other meat products contained high levels of pork fat. Therefore these samples contained less than 1% trans fatty acids, with the excep tion of some pure beef products. The amounts of trans fatty acids in f oods which may contain hydrogenated oils ranged from 0 to 34.9%. In fo od samples with high levels of trans fatty acids lower contents of sat urated fatty acids were analyzed.