Amsterdam, Aug 30 - Dutch vegetable oil processor Unimills is working to develop low-saturated-fat bakery products and spreads in response to growing demand from retailers and consumers for healthier foods, the company said on Wednesday.
Unimills, owned by Malaysian plantation giant Golden Hope , is this week launching new ice creams with sharply reduced levels of saturated fats. "There is a big trend in the food industry to make foods healthier and reduce trans fats and saturated fat levels in particular," Gerhard de Ruiter, research and development manager at Unimills, told Reuters.
"The big retailers like British Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's , Dutch Albert Hein , French Carrefour are setting the trend in Europe," he said.
Saturated and trans fatty acids -- which come from animal fats, tropical oils such as coconut and palm oils as well as processed vegetable oils -- raise cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease.
Unimills General Manager Alexander van der Klauw said his company, which produces tailor-made vegetable oils, was working on a number of projects aimed at reducing saturated fat levels in bakery products and spreads.
It announced in June it had invented healthy fat formulas for ice cream, called Cremex, with saturated fat levels as low as 40 percent of the total fat level.
Unimills developed the products at the request of major ice cream producers.
Scientists have warned of the high levels of sugar-based calories and saturated fat in ice creams.
Saturated fats account for about 63 percent of total fats in dairy butter-based ice creams and about 92 percent in those based on coconut oil, Unimills said.
Its new fat formulas use different combinations of vegetable oils such as coconut, palm, rapeseed and sunseed oil.
De Ruiter said he believed the next global health food trend would be to try to replace dairy fats in products such as bakery goods, coffee creamers, instant sauces and soups with vegetable oils to remove trans fats.
Sainbury's plans to remove trans fats from all of its products by January 2007.
Trans fats are found in small quantities in meat and dairy products but are also created by hydrogenation of plant oils and animals fats, a process aimed at increasing shelf-life.