Content of trans-fatty acid isomers in bakery products on the Slovenian market

Abstract The objective of the present study was to provide data on the content of different isomers of trans-fatty acids (TFAs) in bakery products available on the Slovenian market. The samples were categorized as ‘bread’ (n = 16), ‘cookies/biscuits/wafers’ (76), ‘dough snacks’ (21) and ‘dough’ (4); of these, 71 were prepacked, and 46 were non-prepacked. These investigated foods contained (% total FAs) up to 31% TFAs, with trans-C18:1 as 29.7% and trans-C18:2 as 1.3%. In the ‘cookies/biscuits/wafers’ category, the main trans-C18:1 isomers were t9-C18:1 and t10-C18:1, while in ‘dough snacks’, t11-C18:1 was the highest. Among the trans-C18:2 isomers, t/c-C18:2 and c/t-C18:2 were in equal amounts, while t/t-C18:2 was present mainly in the samples with higher TFA content. Using food consumption data we calculated daily consumed TFAs for different population groups and showed that among investigated food categories ‘cookies/biscuits/wafers’ were the most important source of TFAs. Bakery products could be categorized according to indices of atherogenicity and thrombogenicity, as well as TFA and trans-C18:2 contents.