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Palm Acid Oil KARACHI: Experts from the University of Sindh have found that ten margarine brands of Pakistan contained alarmingly high amounts of trans and saturated fatty acids which are linked with heart disease. The findings appeared in an article ‘GC-MS quantification of fatty acid profile including trans FA in the locally manufactured margarines of Pakistan’ in the international journal of Food Chemistry (Volume 109, Issue 1, 1 July 2008). Margarine is a butter-like product obtained from mixtures of various edible fats and oils. It usually contains appropriate ratios of hard vegetable fats from coconut, palm kernel, vegetable oils and/or hydrogenated vegetable oils. In the manufacturing process, some natural fatty Palm Acid Oil are destroyed and new artificial trans isomers are produced that behave similar to saturated fats. As a result of the economic dislocations during World War II, margarine production rose rapidly as a replacement for butter. During the 1960s margarine became viewed as the healthy alternative to butter because it was comparatively lower in saturated fat. Margarine at that time was heavily hydrogenated and was widespread in the food supply as the major source of industrially produced TFA. But then the incidence of coronary heart disease deaths tracked fairly closely with those of trans fatty acid intake over time. Angina and myocardial infarction were unusual in the early part of the 1900s, but coronary heart disease increased rapidly and became the major cause of death by the mid-twentieth century. Rates peaked in the period from 1950–1960, and mortality has gone down by about 50% since that time. Thus, changes in TFA intake correspond roughly with the epidemic of coronary heart disease. Therefore apprehension in trans-fatty acids originates from their association with coronary heart disease. Studies have provided unequivocal evidence that trans fatty acids increase concentrations of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or ‘bad’ cholesterol and reduce concentrations of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or ‘good’ cholesterol. Studies also indicated that TFA raise lipoprotein levels, an independent inherited factor of coronary heart diseases. Ten margarine brands of Pakistan were analyzed for their fatty acid composition with emphasis on trans fatty acids. Among the saturated fatty acids, palmitic acid (up to 33.8%) was dominant in all analyzed margarine brands, indicating that palm oil was a major contributor in the margarine manufacturing. Among samples tested only one contained a low level of trans fatty acid (2.2%) while the rest contained very high amounts of up to 34.8% which clearly shows that hydrogenated oils were used to make the margarines. Fatty acid profiles demonstrated that all samples belong to the hard margarine category containing high amounts of trans and saturated fatty acids which is an alarming issue for the health of consumers. None of the analyzed samples showed less than 2% trans fatty acids, while data from other countries indicate that each study contained few margarine samples in which there were no TFA or less than one percent TFA. A higher content of TFA shows that margarine manufacturers are not serious about reducing the trans content in their product and are still using conventional technology. These results also indicate that there is great variation in the quality of local commercially available brands and not even two margarine samples had similar fatty acid profiles. Furthermore the amount of trans fat was not mentioned on the label of any local manufactured margarine brands.