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Labelling of trans fatty acids

Health Canada's fact sheet on "Fats and your health" describes the fatty acids that make up fats in foods, including trans fats and saturated fats. It talks about what dietary fats are, why trans and saturated fats are an issue, where trans fats come from, what the main dietary sources of trans fats are, how to reduce trans fat intake, and what is being done to reduce trans fats in food.

Mandatory declaration of trans fat in the Nutrition Facts table

The Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) specifically prescribe what information must be displayed on a label. The trans fatty acid content of a food is one piece of core nutrition information that is required to be declared in a Nutrition Facts table.

Where and how to declare trans fats in the Nutrition Facts table

Nutrition Facts table. Description follows.
Description for image – Declaration of trans fats

Displayed information to note:

A thick horizontal rule separates the "Fat", "Saturated" and "Trans" section from "Calories" above it. Left justified on the next line is Fat in bold followed by a placeholder for amount of fat followed by a lowercase g. Right justified on the same line is a placeholder for the percent Daily Value of fat followed by a percent symbol. Indented on the next line under Fat is Saturated and a placeholder for the amount of saturated fat followed by a lowercase g. Indented on the next line under Saturated there is a plus symbol followed by Trans followed by a placeholder for the amount of trans followed by a lowercase g. There is a placeholder for the combined percent Daily Value for saturated and trans fat which is right justified and vertically centred against the saturated and trans information on the left. It is followed by a percent symbol. There is a thin rule below the Trans information that spans the width of the table.

The FDR specifically prescribe where and how trans fat nutrition information must be displayed on a label. "Trans" must be shown indented underneath the "Fat" declaration, in the same section as the saturated fatty acid declaration. Within this section, "Saturated" is shown above "Trans". There is a thick horizontal rule that separates the "Fat", "Saturated" and "Trans" section from "Calories" above it, and a thin rule below the "Trans" information that separates the section from "Carbohydrate" below it.

Both the "Trans" content and the "Saturated" content are expressed in grams, immediately following the words "Saturated" and "Trans". In addition, the sum of "Saturated + Trans" is expressed as a percentage of the daily value in a column on the right side of the Nutrition Facts table.

Although the sum of "Saturated + Trans" is used for the % DV declared in the NFt, the "Trans" content is not included in the nutrient threshold calculations for the front-of-package (FOP) nutrition symbol. The percent daily value threshold for the "high in sat fat" nutrition symbol is based only on the saturated fat content of the food. Refer to What are the FOP nutrition symbol thresholds based on? for more information.

Nutrient content claims for trans fats

Three nutrient content claims can be made on a label or in an advertisement for a food with respect to its trans fatty acid content:

Prescribed wording for these 3 claims and the conditions that the food must meet in order to make them are set out in items 22 to 24 of the Table of Permitted Nutrient Content Statements and Claims. Note that the conditions for the claims regarding trans fatty acids are tied to the level of saturated fatty acids in the food.

Disease risk reduction claims for trans fats

One disease risk reduction claim is permitted with respect to the trans and saturated fatty acid content of a food. The prescribed wording of the 2 variations of this claim is as follows:

  1. "A healthy diet low in saturated and trans fats may reduce the risk of heart disease. (Naming the food) is free of saturated and trans fats."
  2. "A healthy diet low in saturated and trans fats may reduce the risk of heart disease. (Naming the food) is low in saturated and trans fats."

These claims are permitted on a food label or in an advertisement for a food only if the food meets the conditions set out in the table following B.01.603 FDR, item 3 in Column 2 and 3.

In order to make the first claim, the food must also meet the conditions for the "free of saturated fatty acids" claim. In order to make the second claim, the food must also meet the conditions for the "low in saturated fatty acids" claim.

More information on these requirements can be found in Acceptable disease risk reduction claims and therapeutic claims.

Use of italics for the word "trans"

By scientific convention the word "trans" is italicized when it appears in sentences and general text.

For the purposes of nutrition labelling and for increased legibility on a label, the word "trans" is not italicized when it appears

Use of upper or lower case letters in the word "Trans" in the Nutrition Facts table

Both "Saturated" and "Trans" are shown with the first letter in upper case and the rest of the letters in lower case in the English version of the Nutrition Facts table, in keeping with the convention of capitalizing the first letter of all nutrients in English.

The words "trans" and "saturés" are required to be shown entirely in lowercase letters in the French version of the Nutrition Facts table. This is because they are both considered to be adjectives which are not capitalized in French.

How trans fatty acids are defined in the Food and Drug Regulations

For the purposes of nutrition labelling, trans fatty acids are defined as "unsaturated fatty acids that contain one or more isolated or non-conjugated double bonds in a trans-configuration" [B.01.001(1), FDR].

Some trans fatty acids are naturally present at low levels in some foods, such as dairy products and meat. Most naturally present trans fatty acids fall within the FDR definition and must be included in the "Trans" declaration in the Nutrition Facts table on the label. Conjugated polyunsaturated fatty acids are not included in the label declaration of the trans content of the food because they do not fall within the trans definition. For example, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) found in dairy products and conjugated linolenic acid (CLN) should not be included in the "Trans" fat declaration in the Nutrition Facts table. Laboratories are able to measure the trans fat content of a food, as defined in the FDR, and must not include the amount of conjugated fatty acids, such as CLA or CLN, as part of the analysis for trans fat content.

How the amount of trans fat is determined in a food

The CFIA recommends using the Official Methods of Analysis of AOACR International, Official Method 996.06 to determine the trans fatty acid content of foods. For further information see Appendix 4 - Laboratory issues in CFIA's Nutrition labelling compliance test.

Rounding rules for trans fats

The rounding rules for the trans fatty acid declaration in the Nutrition Facts table are found in Column 4 of item 5 in the table to section B.01.401 of the FDR.

The rounding rules for the sum of saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids declaration in the Nutrition Facts table are found in Column 4 of item 6 in the table to section B.01.401 of the FDR.

For more information, refer to Rounding rules.

How to round a trans fat value

The trans fatty acid value must be rounded to the nearest 0.1 g when it is

The trans fatty acid value must be rounded to the nearest multiple of 0.5 g when

The trans fatty acid value must be rounded to the nearest multiple of 1 g when

When to round a trans fat value to 0

Rounding to 0 is possible in 2 situations:

  1. when the value for trans fatty acids is 0.049 g or less per serving of stated size (by statistically appropriate level of detection or through a reliable calculation), then the trans value can be rounded to 0

    or

  2. when the food meets the conditions for making the nutrient content claim "free of trans fatty acids" set out in the Table of Permitted Nutrient Content Statements and Claims, item 22 in Column 2, then the trans value can be rounded to 0. Note that the conditions for "free of trans fatty acids" include additional conditions related to "low in saturated fat" set out in the Table of Permitted Nutrient Content Statements and Claims, item 19 in Column 2

This means that the trans value can be rounded to 0 when:

Example: Is the "Trans" fat declaration in the Nutrition Facts table permitted to be rounded to 0 when a food contains 0.1 g trans fatty acids, has 1.5 g saturated fatty acids, and a total of 80 Calories per stated serving size?

(Hint: To assess this condition, add the values for the saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids together; multiply the sum by 9 Calories/gram (this is the Atwater factor where 1 gram of fat yields 9 Calories); divide by the calories in the stated serving size; then multiply by 100%.)

The calculation [((1.5 g + 0.1 g) x 9 Cal/g)/80 Cal] x 100% = 18% shows that 18% of the energy is contributed by the sum of saturated and trans fatty acids. This means that the "Trans" fatty acid value in the Nutrition Facts table cannot be rounded to 0 in this case because more than 15% of the energy value comes from the trans and saturates contained in the food. Also, the food does not meet the conditions set out in Column 2 of the Table of Permitted Nutrient Content Statements and Claims for the claims "free of trans fatty acids" and "low in saturated fatty acids".

Originally issued September 14, 2005 (Information letter to industry)

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