Reporting of trans-fat on labels of Brazilian food products

Published online: 07 February 2013OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated how trans-fat is reported on the packaging of foods sold in a Brazilian supermarket. DESIGN: The present descriptive, cross-sectional study analysed the ingredient list, nutrition facts label and claims of no trans-fat on the packaging. SETTING: A large supermarket in Florianópolis, Brazil. SUBJECTS: All food products available at the supermarket. RESULTS: Of the 2327 study products, more than half had components containing trans-fat in the ingredient list, especially hydrogenated vegetable fat and its alternative names. A small percentage of food products reported some trans-fat content on the nutrition facts label and roughly a quarter of the food products claimed to contain no trans-fat on the front of the packaging. There was very low agreement among the trans-fat content reported in the nutrition facts label, claims of no trans-fat made on the packaging and the ingredient list. CONCLUSIONS: There was low agreement among the different ways of reporting trans-fat, suggesting that it is not possible to rely on the nutrition facts label or no trans-fat claims printed on the packaging of Brazilian food products. Hence, the Brazilian legislation on food labels needs to change to improve the reliability of food labels and to help control the trans-fat intake of the population.Bruna Maria Silveira, David Alejandro Gonzalez-Chica and Rossana Pacheco da Costa Proenç