**3. Results**

## *3.1. Trans Fatty Acid Acids in Frequently Consumed Traditional Dishes*

The mean levels of total IP-TFAs (total of Elaidic acid and Linolelaidic acid) in the tested traditional dishes was equal to 0.9% ± 0.62 and ranged from less than 0.1 to 2.8 g/100 g of total fat except for the dishes *Riz a dajaj* and *Shawarma Lahma* in which total IP-TFA exceeded 2% of the total fat (Table 1). The comparison between the mean values of the IP-TFA (EA and LEA) in the traditional dishes tested shows that EA was significantly higher than LEA in all traditional dishes (*p*-value = 0.00). Per each governorate, the mean level of total IP-TFAs in all dishes was 0.78 ± 0.65% in Mount Lebanon (range: <0.1–2.1%), 1.1% ± 0.6 in Beqaa (range: <0.1–3%), 1 ± 2.4% in Beirut (range: <0.1–11.2%), 1.2 ± 0.9% in Tripoli (range: <0.1–3.2%) and 0.8 ± 0.4% in Saida (range: <0.1–2%) (Data not shown).

**Table 1.** Total fat in 100 g of edible portions, total IP-TFAs and IP-TFAs (EA and LEA) in 100 g of fat of frequently consumed traditional dishes among all Lebanese governorates.


\* This represents the sum of EA and LEA only.
