Amsterdam, Oct 10 - Labelling the content of trans fats that occur naturally in dairy products could mislead consumers and give milk and cheese a bad name, an expert on the health effects of fats said on Tuesday.
Dutch Professor Ronald Mensink, who together with a colleague proved in 1990 that artificial trans fats raise bad cholesterol levels, told Reuters the world lacked information about the health impact of naturally occurring trans fats.
A move to introduce labels in Europe displaying the levels of trans fat in foods should distinguish between the artificial and naturally occurring forms of the fat, Mensink said.
Otherwise, the image of products in which trans fats occur naturally, such as milk, cheese and the meat from ruminants, could be damaged, he said.
"The risk is that if you label a dairy product as having a substantial amount of trans fat -- and that can be 4 percent of total fat for example -- then people would think that dairy (products) and milk is bad and this is a misconception," Mensink said.
"Dairy is not simply fat and simply trans fat, it is a rich source of protein and calcium".
The majority of trans fat is created industrially when liquid oils are made into solid fats such as shortening and hard margarine to increase the shelf life of foods.
These fats also raise the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood and reduce levels of good cholesterol, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease.
Canada and the United States have made it mandatory that labels list the amount of artificial trans fat content in food products in order to encourage healthier eating habits and get producers to cut the levels of artificial trans fats in foods.
British health experts and the UK Food Standards Agency are pressing for changes in European legislation to follow these examples and introduce labelling. But Mensink said the debate in Europe also concerned milk and dairy products.
It was important to discuss exactly how the trans fat content would be expressed on the label to avoid misleading consumers, Mensink said.
"If you have only one percent of fat content in a food item that contains 10 percent of trans fat, you should not label 10 percent of total fats because that is misleading," he said.
Mensink is part a team that works on a European project, funded by a consortium of companies including Nestle. The team is studying the effect of natural trans fatty acid on human health and comparing this with artificial trans fat.
A similar study is being carried out in the U.S., he said.