Helping customers to meet new food safety legislation

New European food safety legislation came into effect on 1 April 2021 that set a legal limit of 2g of trans fat per 100g of fat in processed foods.

Trans fats (trans fatty acids) occur naturally in small amounts in foods such as meat and cheese. However, partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils, which have been widely used in the foodservice sector to improve the performance of frying oils, can also include trans fats.

That’s why we set ourselves the challenge last year to review all of our frying oil blends, to ensure that they would continue to meet all relevant food safety legislation. Our aim was to ensure their continuing safety, without compromising their performance.

We identified that 10 of our blends would need to be adapted. These blends are used in 28 of the frying oil products we manufacture, including our own Prep Maxi, Prep Ultra and AVR60 brands, as well many private label products. All of our other blends would meet the new standard without change.

Our dedicated team of food technologists have worked tirelessly to find solutions. And the great news is that they have succeeded in reducing the trans fat in each of the 10 blends affected to well under the new legal limit. Most importantly of all, we have been able to do so without changing their appearance and performance.

Rachel Neale, Marketing Director, AAK Foodservice, said…

“Helping our customers to produce great-tasting fried food, which meets every relevant food safety standard, is our top priority. If we can make things even better, by improving nutritional value and product performance too, then we will.

“It’s great to be able to report that we have been able to achieve both in many cases. A good example is the introduction of high oleic sunflower oil, which is high in monounsaturated fat and low in saturated fatty acids. This demonstrates our new purpose – Making Better Happen^TM – in action.”

All of the new blends have already gone into production, ahead of the new legislation date. So, if you use Prep Ultra, Prep Maxi, AVR60, or any of our private label frying oil blends, you can continue to do so with complete confidence.

To find out more about our Prep range of high performance frying oils, please visit the Prep website.