Trans fats back on the agenda in UK

By Candy Lashkari

Dariush Mozzaffarian and Meir J Stamper, wrote an article in the British Medical Journal urging the government to ban industrial trans fatty acids or TFAs. This adds to the plea of doctors and medical charities across the country, who want to follow the example of Denmark and New York City where TFAs have been eradicated without affecting the price, taste or availability of products.

The government is not considering the ban since a 2007 study carried out by the Food Standards Agency on trans fats concluded that the consumption in UK was far lower than other countries. It also said that voluntary actions by the food manufacturers had been very successful in lowering the TFAs to 1% which was lower than the 2% advised as a dangerous level. A Department of Health spokeswoman said that "the government concluded that trans fats at these levels do not pose health risks to consumers".

What the authors of the BMJ article argue is that these figures are averages for the whole population. There are segments of the population where groups are consuming far more than 1% TFAs. They are put at risk for all related medical problems and so the ban on the industrial TFAs is a good way to help them cut their risk.

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, said "There are great differences in the amount of trans-fats consumed by different people and we are particularly concerned about young people and those with little disposable income who eat a lot of this type of food.This is a major health inequalities issue."

According to the authors of the article even a 1% reduction in the consumption of trans fats in terms of total energy intake by the population would result in the prevention of 11,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths in England alone.

Barbara Gallani, director of food safety and science at the Food and Drink Federation, said "We agree that it is important to maintain a healthily balanced diet in which trans-fats are consumed within the safe levels recommended by the FSA and that is why artificial trans-fats have been virtually eliminated from processed foods in the UK."

Victoria Taylor, senior heart health dietician at the British Heart Foundation, felt that the voluntary measures to cut out industrial trans fats by the fast food manufacturing industry had helped control the UK TFAs consumption. "This is good progress but we still need to do more to make sure that the industrially produced trans-fats don't creep back into our nation's diets." she said.