Studies on saturated and trans fatty acids composition of few commercial brands of biscuits sold in Indian market.

Saturated fat and trans fat consumption is linked to cardiovascular disease. Considering the health implications of saturated and trans fats investigation was undertaken with the objective to study the fat compositions in biscuits sold in Indian market. These commercial biscuits were analysed for saturated and trans fatty acids using capillary GC. The results of analysis of 46 biscuit samples showed that the total fat content ranged from 9.5 to 25.0 g/100 g of biscuits. The fatty acid profile showed that, saturated fat content in biscuits ranged from 5.1 to 18.7 g/100 g. The overall range of total trans fat content was found to be 0.1 to 3.2 g/100 g biscuit and cis monounsaturated fatty acid content varied from 0.9 to 8.6 g/100 g of biscuits. The low-level trans fatty acid was mainly by dienes and trienes where as high-level trans was from monoenes of C18. Polyunsaturated fatty acids in biscuits ranged from 0.2 to 3.5 g/100 g. Biscuits of same brand on repeat analysis over a period of one year showed little variation in fat, saturated and trans fat content.