WHO awards countries for progress in eliminating industrially produced trans fats for first time

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has awarded its first-ever certificates validating progress in eliminating industrially produced trans fatty-acids to five countries. Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand have each demonstrated they have a best practice policy for industrially produced trans-fatty acids (iTFA) elimination in effect, supported by adequate monitoring and enforcement systems. WHO also released results from the first five years of its REPLACE initiative to eliminate iTFA.

While the ambitious target set by WHO in 2018—to fully eliminate iTFA from the global food supply by the end of 2023—was not met, there has been remarkable progress made towards this goal in every region of the world.

Trans-fatty acids (TFA) are semisolid to solid fats that occur in two forms: industrially produced and naturally occurring. Intake of TFA is associated with increased risk of heart attacks and death from heart disease. TFA have no known health benefits, and foods high in iTFA (e.g. fried foods, cakes and ready meals) are often high in sugar, fat and salt.

A total of 53 countries have now best practice policies in effect for tackling iTFA in food, vastly improving the food environment for 3.7 billion people, or 46% of the world's population, as compared to 6% just 5 years ago. These policies are expected to save approximately 183,000 lives a year.

Accelerating efforts to achieving best-practice policies in just 8 countries with the highest needs would eliminate 90% of the global iTFA burden, representing a unique opportunity to see in our lifetime a world free from deaths attributable to iTFA.

The WHO validation programme for iTFA elimination recognises those countries which went beyond introducing best practice policies by ensuring rigorous monitoring and enforcement systems in place.

Best practices in iTFA elimination policies follow WHO criteria and limit iTFA use in all settings. There are two best-practice policy options: 1) mandatory national limit of 2 grams of iTFA per 100 grams of total fat in all foods; and 2) mandatory national ban on the production or use of partially hydrogenated oils (a major source of trans fat) as an ingredient in all foods.

Source: World Health Organisation