Trans Fatty Acid Contents in Selected Dietary Fats in the Estonian Market

In response to public concern, this study assessed the fatty acid (FA) composition of blended spreads, margarines and shortenings in the Estonian retail market in 2011. Special attention was paid to the trans fatty acids (TFA) composition. The changes in these characteristics of selected dietary fats in the market over recent years are also presented. Twenty-six edible fat brands, available in the Estonian retail market in 2011, were purchased and FA compositions were analyzed by chromatography. Saturated fatty acids (SFA) were the dominant group of FAs for all blended spreads (49.6 to 65.8%), and for the majority of shortenings (from 21.1 to 54.6%). Cis monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were the dominant group of FAs for the majority of margarines, ranging from 25.3% to 50.5%. The total TFA for blended spreads varied from 1.18% to 9.08%, for margarines from 0.04% to 34.96% and for shortenings from 0.14% to 39.50%. Octadecenoic (C18:1) isomers were the main TFA found. Compared to 2008/2009, the industrially produced TFA (IP-TFA) content in several of the dietary fat brands was much reduced in 2011. This voluntary reformulation was probably a response to consumer demand associated with a public health campaign directed against IP-TFA in Estonian foods, and were mainly achieved by replacing TFA with SFA C12:0-C16:0. Practical Application: Present paper is directed toward public health related institutions and food industries producing foods with potentially high contents of trans fatty acids (TFA). According to the public concern TFA content in domestic blended spreads has declined significantly over the past 3 y in Estonia. The reduction in the TFA content was achieved by replacing TFA with saturated fatty acids (SFA) (C12:0-C16:0). To shift food composition toward healthier product formulations, mandatory labeling of the sum of IP-TFA and SFA (C12:0-C16:0) was recommended.     

Winds in the Gulf of Riga from QuikSCAT and ground-based measurements

This article presents an overview of marine winds in the Gulf of Riga, measured by the SeaWinds instrument on the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite during the whole lifetime period of the satellite, i.e. 1999–2009. The data were collected with a resolution of 12.5 km during the satellite overflights at 02–04 UTC and 16–18 UTC and referenced to the height of 10 m. The quality of the data was carefully checked, and necessary adjustment was applied to remove the contaminated recordings. Wind speed and direction were compared with those registered on the islands of Kihnu and Ruhnu. It has been shown that allowing lenient filtering of rain-contaminated data derives larger wind speed estimates but increases considerably the quantity of data, allowing separate analysis of the northern and southern parts of the gulf. Wind speed in the northern part is slightly higher, the wind roses for the early morning measurements are similar, but those for the evening measurements show that in spring and summer, the most frequent winds in the southern part are northwesterly and in the northern part are westerly. Wind speed measured on the islands is less than that estimated from the satellite even in the case when rain contamination is removed through application of strict criteria. Wind roses measured at Kihnu are practically similar to those estimated from satellites for the northern part of the gulf in the evening but show some differences during the early morning. In winter, ground-based measurements show maximal frequency of southerly winds, and satellite measurements show southwesterly winds. In spring, the secondary maximum in the wind rose shows northwesterly winds in ground-based records and easterly winds in satellite measurements. Ground-based wind directions are well correlated with those measured by the satellite showing correlation coefficients of over 0.9. For wind speed, this quantity is somewhat lower, i.e. around 0.6.