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U.S. regulator announces ban on artificial trans fat

Xinhua, June 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday announced a ban on heart disease- related artificial trans fat from the food supply within three years.

The FDA said in its final determination that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), the primary dietary source of artificial trans fat in processed foods, are not "generally recognized as safe" for use in human food.

The U.S. regulator said the rule was "based on a thorough review of the scientific evidence" and required food manufacturers to remove PHOs from products in three years.

"This means that PHOs may no longer be added to food after June 18, 2018, unless they are otherwise approved by FDA," Susan Mayne, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in a statement. "This action will save many thousands of lives (every year)."

PHOs have been used as ingredients since the 1950s to improve the shelf-life of processed foods, but in 2002, an authoritative report from the U.S. Institute of Medicine found that consumption of trans fat raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease.

In 2006, the FDA required that manufacturers declare the amount of trans fat on the Nutrition Facts label because of these public health concerns.

Many manufacturers in the U.S. responded by voluntarily changing their product formulations to reduce or eliminate trans fat, and the FDA estimated that consumer trans fat consumption decreased about 78 percent between 2003 and 2012.

However, trans fat can still be found in some processed foods, such as certain desserts, microwave popcorn, frozen pizzas, margarines and coffee creamers.

"The current intake remains a public health concern," the FDA said. "The Institute of Medicine recommends that consumption of trans fat be as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally- adequate diet."

The FDA encouraged consumers seeking to reduce trans fat intake to check a food's ingredient list for PHOs to determine whether or not a product contains the additives.

Currently, U.S. foods are allowed to be labeled as having "0" grams trans fat if they contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.

The FDA noted that the rule does not affect trans fat that naturally occurs in small amounts in certain meat and dairy products. Endite