Dalda

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Dalda is a brand of hydrogenated vegetable oil popular in South Asia. The substance was originally imported from the Netherlands in the 1930s by the trading company Dada Limited. When Hindustan Lever Limited wanted to brand it, the trader, who still retained a commercial connection with the product, said it had to be named after his company. HLL wanted to include the letter 'L' in it for Lever (of the Unilever group), and thus was born one of the longest-living brands in Pakistan. Dalda, which came to be synonymous with the vanaspati (hydrogenated vegetable fat) genre, was recently extended to a range of edible oils. Hindustan Lever has since sold the brand.

Bunge Limited now owns Dalda, offering new variants of Dalda in India. Bunge being the largest manufacturer of bottled oils in the world has now extended the Dalda brand name to its range of refined and filtered oils in India.

In July 2004, Unilever Pakistan accepted the offer of Rs. 1.33 Billion for the sale of its "Dalda" brand to Dalda Foods (Private) Ltd.. Within a few years of its inception, Dalda Foods has become one of the largest foods FMCG organizations in Pakistan leading the local category of oil and fats. In Pakistan, Dalda has now divested into Canola and Olive Oil product variants as well.

Hydrogenated oils are main source for Trans fats. Of all the fats, trans fatty acids are considered to have an adverse effect on blood lipids and immune system.^{[citation needed]}. Dalda is the only brand in Pakistan which produces a banaspati(hydrogenated oils) which is the most popular brand in Pakistan, which happens to be VTF (virtually trans fats free). VTF means that content of Trans Fats in Dalda Banaspati is less than 1% as against other ordinary banaspati brands which contain around 20-25% trans fats.

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