TRANS FATTY ACIDS EVALUATION IN STUFFED COOKIES AND WAFERS.

Several scientific evidences prove that trans fatty acids are harmful to health. Considering the presence of trans fat in foods, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends its elimination by the year 2023. In Brazil, ANVISA's RDC number 54 states that only foods with trans fat content than ≤ 0, 1 g per serving and trans more saturated fatty acids up to 1.5 g / serving may claim zero trans in the labeling. Stuffed cookies and wafers are important representatives of ultra-processed foods containing high levels of sugars and fats saturated, being widely consumed for their low cost and accessibility. From these observations, the objective of this study was to evaluate the contents of trans and saturated fat by gas chromatography (AOAC method 996.06) in stuffed cookies and wafers commercialized in the city of São Paulo, verifying if the labeling is in accordance with the legislation. Thirty-one stuffed cookies and thirty three wafers were analyzed, with trans fat content ranging from 0.01 to 1.56 g / serving and 0.01 and 2.56 g / serving in the stuffed cookies and wafers respectively. In biscuits with zero trans claim in labeling the sum of saturated and trans fat ranged from 1.67 to 3.31 g / serving and from 1.95 to 4.16 g / serving respectively in stuffed cookies and wafers. At first all zero trans samples would be in disagreement with the legislation, but by the t-student test with P-value <0.01 it can be observed that twelve stuffed cookies and twenty one wafers were in disagreement with the RDC 54. In view of this, the urgent need for changes in current legislation and more frequent inspections by the competent legislation agencies.