FDA plans on banning artery clogging trans fats

FDA plans on banning artery clogging trans fats

Although most foods in grocery stores and in restaurants are free from trans fats, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working to ensure that all foods are without them.The FDA announced that they are requiring the food industry to gradually phase out all trans fats because they are a threat to people’s health. There has not been a timeline set for the phase out, but different foods will most likely have different timelines depending on how difficult the change will be to specific categories.

Commissioner Margaret Hambug said that the move could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths each year, which is a positive and significant impact. The FDA will now no longer allow trans fats to fall under the “generally recognized as safe” category, which means that companies who want to use trans fats would have to petition for the agency to allow it, and chances of it getting approved are slim.

Trans fats come from hydrogen that is connected to vegetable oil to help make it solid, and there are no health benefits that come from it. Trans fats can often cause high cholesterol and heart disease. A lot of processed foods and smaller restaurant chains products still contain trans fats.

This change was proposed nine years ago and is now finally being implemented. We hope that a timeline develops quickly, so that more lives are protected and kept healthy.

Source: MDJ.com, “FDA to Ban artery-clogging trans fats,” Mary Clare Jalonick, November 7, 2013.