Wang Qiang's team from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences: The latest research progress of trans fatty acids in food was systematically reviewed for the first time

Recently, Wang Qiang's team from the Institute of Agricultural Products Processing of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences published an online publication entitled "New Research Development on Trans Fatty Acids in Food: Biological Effects, Analytical Methods" in the internationally renowned academic journal Progress in Lipid Research (Region 1, Chinese Academy of Sciences, IF: 14.
673), Formation Mechanism, and Mitigating Measures", which is an important achievement of the team in recent years in the research of trans fatty acids (TFAs), for the first time, systematically summarizes the latest biological effects, analysis methods, formation mechanisms and reduction measures of TFAs in food from biological and chemical perspectives, and promotes the progress of
food TFA research 。 Li Tian and Qu Yang, associate researchers and 2020 doctoral students of the Institute of Agricultural Products Processing of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, are the co-first authors of the paper, and researcher Wang Qiang is the corresponding author
of the paper.

Trans fatty acids (TFAs) are unconjugated unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) containing at least one trans double bond, and long-term intake of TFAs will cause various diseases
in humans and animals to a certain extent.
Over the past decade, countries have implemented a number of policy actions to limit the amount of TFAs in foods and reduce their intake
.
WHO studies have shown that excessive intake of TFAs (1% of total energy intake >) will cause more than 500, 000 deaths from coronary heart disease each year and increase the risk of heart disease by 21% and increase mortality by 28%, attracting global concern
.
To address this, the WHO published an action plan on 14 May 2018 to eliminate industrially produced trans fats
from the global food supply by 2023.
Therefore, people's intake of TFAs should be reduced
as much as possible.

This paper summarizes and introduces
the latest developments in the biological effects, analysis methods, formation and reduction measures of TFAs in food from the biological and chemical perspectives.
Special emphasis was placed on the research progress on hazards of each isomer of TFAs, new analytical methods for rapid and easy-to-use, formation mechanisms and dynamics, possible reduction mechanisms, and new/improved mitigation measures during the period 2015-2021
.
In terms of the biological effects of TFAs, the potential correlation
between the isomers of TFAs and cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, etc.
was summarized.
In terms of TFAs analysis methods, in addition to optimized pretreatment and improved IR, GC/GC-MS, HPLC/HPLC-MS, RS, and NMR, rapid pretreatment, TOF-MS, UPLC/UPLC-MS, UPC2-MS, GC-combustion-IRMS and GC-VUV technologies significantly improve the analysis speed and efficiency
of TFAs in various foods 。 At the same time, some newly established GC-FTIR, GC-NMR, RP-HPLC-FTMS, HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF, UHPSFC and online visibl-NIR broaden the method selection of
TFAs analysis 。 In terms of the formation mechanism of TFAs, the mechanism of free radical isomerization (oxidative isomerism, hydrogen pumping isomerization and direct isomerization) was summarized in depth, focusing on the newly proposed proton transfer isomerization mechanism, and emphasizing the importance of transition states and intermediate structures.
Recognized and new factors affecting the formation of TFAs in food are discussed in detail; Some newly established dynamic models
are also introduced.
In terms of TFAs reduction, the measures and possible reduction mechanisms of TFAs in food were systematically elaborated.
In addition to recognized reduction measures, the use of exogenous additives such as N2 and antioxidants is also an effective way to
reduce TFAs.

Looking ahead, stable, rapid, easy-to-use, low-cost/online methods will be the focus of TFAs detection methods.
The oxidative isomerization, direct isomerization, hydrogen pumping isomerization and addition isomerization of UFAs, especially polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), such as C18:2 and C18:3, still need to be further explored.
With the continuous improvement of TFAs reduction measures, the reduction mechanism needs to be studied urgently, and effective measures to effectively inhibit TFAs and maintain suitable sensory quality of food should be further explored, and the impact of
additives on food safety should be paid attention to.