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The World Health Organization has called on all governments to use a new toolkit to effectively eliminate "toxic" industrially produced trans fats from food supplies by 2023.
Trans fats, such as margarine and ghee, are believed to contribute to more than 500000 deaths every year globally from cardiovascular disease, according to WHO. 1 It said that diets high in trans fats increase heart disease risk by 21% and deaths by 28%.
Denmark, followed by Ecuador, Iceland, Norway, Singapore, and South Africa have already set limits on trans fats of 2% in all foods. WHO issued a package of actions, called "REPLACE," 2 to enable other governments to follow their best practice lead.
In the UK, the government has resisted pressure from campaign groups to legislate to ban trans fats. Instead, there have been voluntary guidelines since 2012 to encourage food manufacturers and retailers to cut them from their products. This has led to a decline in the level of trans fats in food.
WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a press conference in Geneva on 14 May that the food industry was willing to...