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Fats: Health Hazards

Volume 461: debated on Monday 11 June 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the typical unsaturated fat content of a serving of (a) oven chips, (b) deep fried chips, (c) chicken masala, (d) fish and chips and (e) samosa. (139727)

Data on the unsaturated fatty acid content of foods can be found in McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods series. Latest data from this series published in 2002 are set out in the following table.

Food

Total unsaturated fatty acids (9/100g)1

Typical portion size (g)2

Total unsaturated fatty acids per serving (g)

Oven chips, frozen, baked

2.2

165

3.6

Chips3, retail, fried in blended oil

10.7

210

22.5

Chicken tikka masala, retail

6.6

300

19.8

Fish4 and chips3, fried in blended oil

11.7

380

44.6

Meat samosas, takeaway

11.8

70

8.3

1 Data from Food Standards Agency (2002) McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods, Sixth summary edition. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry. 2 Portion size information taken from Food Standards Agency (2002) Food Portion Sizes, 3rd Edition, London, HMSO. 3 The fat content of chips will be variable and dependent on a number of factors related to their preparation, including how thick they are cut and their shape, i.e. crinkle as opposed to straight cut. 4 Based on cod, in batter, fried in blended oil.