Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ2: Safety of food containing trans fatty acid
Following is a question by the Hon Albert Cheng and a reply by the Secretary for
Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York chow, in the Legislative Council today
(January 31):
Question:
It has been reported that since artificial trans fats will increase the risk of
suffering from cardiovascular diseases, the use of such substance in food
production will be banned in restaurants in New York City (NYC) of the United
States of America (US) from July this year. In addition, a number of restaurant
chains in US have also announced that they will reduce the use of artificial
trans fats or switch to other types of vegetable oil in food production. In this
connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has studied the trend and causes of Hong Kong people suffering
from cardiovascular diseases in recent years; if it has, whether the causes of
the diseases are related to the consumption of food containing artificial trans
fats;
(b) whether it plans to follow the practice of NYC authority to ban the use of
artificial trans fats in food production in restaurants; and
(c) whether there is requirement that the level of artificial trans fats should
be specified on the packages of imported food and local food products to
facilitate easy identification by the public?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Trans fatty acid, commonly known also as trans fat, is an unsaturated fat.
Milk and fat of cattle and sheep contain a small amount of naturally occurring
trans fat. But most of the trans fat found in food comes from partially
hydrogenated vegetable oils, such as shortening and margarine. They are common
ingredients found in fried food and baked food such as biscuits, cookies, cakes,
pastries and chips. The amount of trans fat increases during the hydrogenation
process when vegetable oil is turned from liquid form into partial solid state.
In terms of its effect on human health, trans fat is similar to saturated fat in
that it raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (so-called bad
cholesterol) level. It also lowers the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)
cholesterol (so-called good cholesterol), which increases the risk of coronary
heart disease.
Cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of deaths in Hong Kong. In
2005, 9 302 registered deaths were attributed to cardiovascular diseases, which
accounted for 24% of total registered deaths. In fact, many risk factors of
cardiovascular diseases can be avoided or reduced. They include social factors,
such as smoking, insufficient exercise and being under constant pressure, and
health factors, such as obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes. In
view of these, the Department of Health has commissioned the Chinese University
of Hong Kong to undertake a cardiovascular health survey to study cardiovascular
health as well as the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and its related risk
factors, such as high blood lipid, high blood sugar, overweight and obesity in
Hong Kong population. The results will be published later this year. Trans fat
is not covered in the study.
(b)&(c) At present, there is no law that prohibits the sale of food that
contains trans fat and no requirement to stipulate that trans fat contents in
food must be listed on the package labels of imported or manufactured food.
However, we are working with the trade to pursue a consensus on requiring that
the contents of saturated fat, mono-unsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and
cholesterol must comply with the relevant requirements and must be listed on
labels of those prepackaged food which makes claims related to fats or
cholesterol, upon the full implementation of nutrition labelling scheme. At
present, we do not have any plan to follow the example of New York and prohibit
the use of trans fat in local restaurants, but the Centre for Food Safety will
closely monitor the latest international developments regarding regulation of
trans fat.
Ends/Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:10
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