Artificial trans fats banned in U.S.

It’s official: Artificial trans fats are banned in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled in 2015 that artificial trans fats were unsafe to eat and gave food-makers three years to eliminate them from the food supply, with a deadline of June 18, 2018. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and one of the first researchers to discover a link between artificial trans fats and cholesterol and heart disease, told the Washington Post that the ban could reduce the number of people who die from heart disease and curb the incidence of diabetes, dementia, and other metabolic diseases.

The Post noted that the FDA recently granted companies a one-year extension to use artificial trans fats in limited circumstances, including grease for industrial baking pans.

“I would have preferred [FDA not give] the one-year extension because manufacturers have had plenty of time to eliminate the use of trans fat,” Willett said. “However, these are small enough that we can say that industrial trans fat has been removed from our food supply.”

Read the Washington Post article: Artificial trans fats, widely linked to heart disease, are officially banned

Learn more

Shining the Spotlight on Trans Fats (The Nutrition Source)

WHO calls for elimination of trans fat by 2023 (Harvard Chan School news)