Determination of trans fat in traditional Pakistani breakfast and snack foods.
Intake of trans fat may led to cardiovascular diseases and have no nutritional advantage in the diet. Breakfast and snack foods are the major contributor of trans fat in the diet. Research was performed to determine trans fat contents and physiochemical attributes of extracted fats and oils from traditional products like poori, cake, paratha, doughnut and puff pastry which were collected from local market of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Trans fat contents were determined in term of elaidic acid through attenuated total reflection fourier transform infrared (ATRFTIR) spectroscopy. Highest trans fat content were found in doughnuts (38.691±0.133%) followed by poori (18.480 ± 5.020%). Minimum value for trans fat was observed in puff pastry (6.190±3.080%). Overall, trans fat content ranged between 6.190±3.080 to 38.691±0.133% which shows drastically higher tans fat contents. Samples were further investigated for different quality parameters i.e. melting point, refractive index, specific gravity, free fatty acids, peroxide value, acid value, saponification value and iodine value The greatest value of melting point was found in samples of Paratha (36.1±2.1°C) and lowest value was observed in cake (31.4±0.8°C). Highest acid value and free fatty acid contents were found in poori (0.6912 ±0.12% and 0.347±0.058). Samples form poori showed highest saponification value (190.34±1.71mg KOH/g) while iodine value was highest in cake (69.921± 1.26%) and lowest in puff pastry (62.102± 1.25%).