Cream-filled breads with shredded coconut are one of the local favourites. However, people should avoid or cut down on these breads as a  Consumer Council/Centre for Food Safety survey has found they contain high levels of trans fats.

Trans fats have been linked to increased risk of coronary heart disease with growing evidence, and are considered to be worse than saturated fats with which people are more familiar.

The test covered different types of bakery products: 23 breads, 14 cakes, seven egg tarts, three chicken pies, and 11 batter-made foods such as egg rolls, waffles and egg puffs. Included in the test were also 14 fried foods - French fries, potato cut fries, fried chicken, fried pork chop, fried fritters and deep-fried pastries - and eight butter and margarine/margarine-like products.

Test results

The test revealed that two cream-filled breads with shredded coconut contained about 1.3g and 1.5g of trans fats, weighing 95g and 83g. This means the consumption of a single cream-filled, shredded-coconut bread will contribute up to 70% of the WHO/FAO recommended daily intake of trans fats (for a person with a 2,000-calorie daily energy intake), let alone the trans fats that one will consume in other foods.

Frequent consumption of this food could lead to an intake of trans fats in excess of the recommended limits. According to WHO/FAO recommendation, the intake of trans fats should be less than 1% of a person's daily energy intake. For a 2,000-calorie diet, the daily intake of trans fats should be less than 2.2g.

On the whole, the test found trans fats in the bread sampled range from zero to 1.8g/100g. The same wide variation in trans fats was found in other groups of samples: egg tarts and chicken pies (0.12g to 0.82g/100g), and fried foods (0.034g to 2.4g/100g).

For margarine/margarine-like samples, trans fats contents varied substantially, from 0.12g to 4.2g/100g. One butter sample contained 3.5g/100g trans fats, which was found to be within the range of general butter product specifications, according to international data.

The test also found one potato cut fries and two fried chicken samples contain quite a high level of saturated fats. The consumption of a single portion of these samples may already contribute up to 70% of the WHO/FAO daily intake recommendation on saturated fats for a person with a 2,000-calorie daily energy intake.

Healthy tips

People are urged to maintain a balanced diet, avoid using hydrogenated oils/fats and animal fats in preparing food, and reduce the intake of foods that are high in trans fats or saturated fats.

Restaurants should avoid using hydrogenated vegetable oil and research how to reduce trans fats and saturated fats in foods. The ingredients, vegetable shortening and margarine, if used, should be clearly declared for prepackaged food.