About 80% of the products called “Cheese Pies” do not contain cottage cheese but a mixture of products containing vegetal fats, said the National Public Health Agency that carried out inspections at pie making units. The instructors ascertained that a large part of the business entities use deceiving commercial practices when labeling pies on sale, IPN reports.

According to the Agency, the filling consists of a food product made using vegetal fats that contain hydrogenated palm oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil to which skim milk is added. This product only imitates cottage cheese by its consistency. In these cases, the inspectors took samples of filling and of pies for testing.

In some of the cases, the content of trans fatty acids in the filling is excessively high. The inspectors issued prescription for complying with the legislation, noting that using the name “Cheese Pie” for products whose filling does not contain cottage cheese is banned and warning to indicate all the ingredients on packing.

Consumption of products rich in trans fatty acids (TFA) poses an increased risk to health. WHO studies have shown an association of TFA consumption and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This increased risk is because TFA increase the ratio of LDL cholesterol to HDL cholesterol.