This is because the hydrogenated vegetable fats which provide most dietary trans-fat are a mainstay of the food industry - a cheap bulking agent perfect for padding out expensive processed products, with a long shelf life and a luxurious ‘mouth feel’.
They are to be found, for example, in margarine, vegetable shortening, ice-cream, puddings & pudding mixes, ready-made pies, cakes & cake mixes, biscuits, pizza, potato chips, fritters, doughnuts, gravy & sauce mixes, artificial creamers, confectionery and other processed foods, including many foods marketed at children, including some sugary breakfast cereals.
When shopping in the US, always inspect the list of ingredients before you buy any product, looking in particular for:
- hydrogenated vegetable oil
- partially hydrogenated vegetable oil
- vegetable shortening
- margarine
In other countries (such as the UK) there may not be a requirement to list whether an oil has been hydrogenated, but if the man ingredient says vegetable oil it is very likely canola or rape seed oil which is high in poly-unsaturates and therefore trans-fats could very likely have been created during the oil extraction process, so be aware of that.
For more information:
http://www.tfx.org.uk/page13.html
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