Trans fats kill half a million people each year.

In the world there are 5,000 million unprotected people against harmful trans fats, whose consumption is responsible for 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each yearwarned a report by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said that “trans fats have no known benefits and pose enormous health risks, that suppose enormous costs for the sanitary systems”.

Simply put, trans fats are a toxic chemical that kills, and they should have no place in food. It is time to eliminate it once and for all,” Tedros said.

Industrially produced trans fats (also called industrially produced trans fatty acids) are commonly found in packaged foods, bakery products, cooking oils and spreads.

They increase the concentration of low-density lipoproteins in the blood and decrease high-density lipoproteins, which is colloquially called “good cholesterol”, causing an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Trans fatty acids are formed in the hydrogenation process that is carried out on the fats in order to solidify them to use them in different foods, and favors freshness, texture and stability, as is the case of the solidification of fat for the manufacture of margarine.

Since the WHO first called for the global elimination of industrially produced trans fats in 2018 – with the goal of eliminating them by 2023 – the population coverage of best practice policies has increased almost sixfold.

So far 43 countries have already implemented best practice policies to address trans fats in food, with 2.8 billion people protected worldwide, according to data collected by the organization.

But a majority of the population, 5 billion people worldwide, remain exposed to the devastating effects of trans fats on health, and the global goal of eliminating them completely by 2023 remains unachievable.

Currently, nine of the 16 countries with the highest estimated proportion of CHD deaths caused by trans fat intake lack a good practice policy. These are Australia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, South Korea, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Nepal and Pakistan.

There are two best practice policy alternatives, according to the WHO, and the first is to set a mandatory national limit of two grams of industrially produced trans fat per 100 grams of total fat in all foods.

The second is the mandatory national ban on the production or use of essential oils. partially hydrogenated (one of the main sources of trans fat) as an ingredient in all foods.

“The days of trans fat killing people are numbered, but governments must act to end this preventable tragedy,” said Tom Frieden, MD, president of Resolve to Save Lives, a US health organization. cardiovascular.

While most trans fat elimination policies to date have been applied in high-income countries (mainly in the Americas and Europe), a growing number of middle-income countries have started to apply or adopt these policies.

This is the case of Argentina, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Paraguay and Ukraine. In Mexico, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, the introduction in 2023 of policies based on best practices is also being examined. And, if approved, Nigeria would be the second country in Africa, and the most populous, to establish a policy of eliminating trans fats.

In America, the countries that have adopted best practice policies are Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United States, Peru and Uruguay.

In Africa, South Africa has those policies; in Southwest Asia, Saudi Arabia and Oman; in South and Southeast Asia India, Singapore and Thailand; and, in the European region, a total of 32 countries.