Super Eco

Photo credit: sarah gilbert

Trans fatty acids, or trans fats, are unsaturated fats with trans-isomer fatty acids; in other words, the carbon atoms are double-bonded to one another, making them "unsaturated" (they can be polyunsaturated or monounsaturated) that are then "hydrogenated." These fats are created in a process that is similar to soap-making, and was developed in the 1890s by Nobel laureate Paul Sabatier. In 1902, the process was patented, and immediately became popular with food companies seeking to find a low-cost, shelf-stable replacement for butter and lard in their products. Procter & Gamble acquired the U.S. rights to the patent in 1909, and began marketing Crisco in 1911, winning over American cooks by giving away free cookbooks with the product. Crisco was largely made from partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, utilizing a byproduct of the cotton industry.

A type of trans fat occurs naturally in the bodies and milk of ruminants (cows, sheep and goats, for instance), at levels of 2% to 5% of total fat. Until the early 1900s, this was the only source of trans fat in human diets. Today trans fats are used in a huge variety of packaged food products, from baked good like breads and pastries, crackers and snack foods, fried foods, salad dressings, and many candy products, among other things.

Because dietary trans fats have been proven to raise the bad "LDL" cholesterol levels, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease, trans fats are now known as a health risk and are beginning to be replaced by liquid oils (olive, canola, soy, corn and sunflower, principally) and other new varieties of shelf-stable oils.

Production of trans fatty acids is a dangerous process utilizing a number of heavy metals. Hydrogen is bubbled through vegetable oil at very high pressures with a granular metal catalyst, usually nickel, present. Oil and catalyst are also separated by filtration and cleansed with a bleaching earth. The byproducts of this process are a "sweet water" used to produce glycerin and biodiesel.