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In recent decades, the oil industry has changed its direction toward vegetable oil use instead of animal fats due to various reasons such as a small numbers of animal fat resources and high saturated fatty acids content in animal fats. Therefore, different modification processes have been used to alter the physicochemical properties of vegetable oils, which lack functionality and oxidative stability in their native form. Hydrogenation process is a common way to produce plastic fats with different functionality in order to formulate different bakery fats, spreads and margarines. Unfortunately, formation of trans fatty acids (TFAs), which have several negative impacts on human health, is the consequence of this process. Therefore, international and national organizations have established legislations and policies to reduce or preferably eliminate TFAs from hydrogenated vegetable oils.
The objective of this study is firstly to review international and national legislations as well as the current status of TFAs in food products in Iran and worldwide, to discuss the gaps. Secondly, the strategies to address these gaps will be proposed. Through this article we will show that despite great efforts having been made in Iran, there is still room to make the documented policies and their conformities with each other to minimize the amount of TFAs in food products much more efficient.  
 

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Background and Objectives: Previous research has established that Vitamin D₃ (Cholecalciferol) deficiency is considered to be a highly prevalent nutritional problem worldwide. Data from National Food and Nutrition Surveillance Program (2015) revealed that prevalence of vitamin D₃ deficiency in Iran is more than 70% of the population. Vegetable oils are considered to be potential candidates for fortification with vitamin D₃. Although exposure to high temperatures has been shown to cause adverse effects in vitamin D₃ content of food products, research to date has not yet determined the stability of added vitamin D₃ in vegetable oils during cooking procedures.
Materials and Methods: An 80/20 % (eighty/twenty) mixture of fortified oils/water subjected to low temperature (105°C, for 0, 60, 120 and 180 minutes) and high temperature (160°C, for 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60 minutes) under reflux condition in order to determine the destruction rate of vitamin D₃. The vitamin D₃ concentration was determined by HPLC method with following operating conditions: apparatus, SHIMADZU10-ATVP; column, C18 column, 5 mm, 150_4mm id; mobile phase, methanol; ambient temperature; flow rate, 1.0 ml/min
Results: This study has identified that retention rate of added vitamin D₃ in corn, sunflower and canola oils during normal cooking process varies from 68.6% to 87.4%.
Conclusions: This study has shown that retention of added vitamin D₃ in various vegetable oils depends on the range of natural vitamin D₃ retention in cooking of foodstuffs. This result will be of interest to clinical researchers and policymakers concerned with the fortification of food products mainly vitamin D₃ fortification_.