Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has moved to ban the use of trans fats in all foods by 2018 after officially declaring partially hydrogenated oils or PHOs, the primary dietary source of artificial trans fat in processed foods, no longer safe for human consumption.
In a statement announcing the move, the agency said that it would significantly reduce the use of PHOs in the food supply, and that manufacturers will have a period of three years to completely remove the substance from their products. The decision comes two years after FDA officials first tentatively determined that PHOs were no longer “generally recognized as safe.”
Acting FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Ostroff said that the agency’s decision to ban PHO use “demonstrates the agency’s commitment to the heart health of all Americans” and “is expected to reduce coronary heart disease and prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks every year.”
The agency said that the three-year compliance period will allow companies to either alter their products in order to remove PHOs and/or petition the FDA for allow for special permission to continue using them. By 2018, no PHOs will be permitted to be added to human food unless the manufacturer has received special approval from the FDA.
A life-saving move
As the Associated Press and the New York Times point out, regular consumption of trans fats can raise a person’s low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad cholesterol” levels and reduce their high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or “good cholesterol” levels. Furthermore, trans fats are a major contributor to heart disease and are considered to be less healthy than saturated fats.
Manufacturers have been legally required to include trans fat content data on the nutrition labels of their food products since 2006, and the FDA estimates that consumption of trans fats declined by approximately 78 percent between 2003 and 2012. Despite the decrease, however, the agency still views the current consumption levels to be a concern to the overall public health.
“Studies show that diet and nutrition play a key role in preventing chronic health problems, such as cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. She said that the ban was “based on extensive research into the effects of PHOs, as well as input from all stakeholders,” and added that the move “goes hand in hand with other FDA initiatives to improve the health of Americans.”
“This is the final nail in the coffin of trans fats,” Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer organization that petitioned the FDA for the ban, told the New York Times. “In terms of lives saved, I think eliminating trans fats is the single most important change to our food supply.”
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