The Food and Drug Administration has long deemed trans fats as unhealthy and announced on Thursday, due to a preliminary determination, they will begin to require the food industry to eliminate trans fats from their products altogether, the Associated Press reported.
Trans fats can be found in various frozen, canned and baked processed foods with partially hydrogenated oils being the major source of trans fats in these foods, according to the New York Times. The artery-clogging substance has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease and is a major contributor health issues in the United States, the Times reported.
According to the FDA, if the preliminary determination is passed, then foods with partially hydrogenated oils will have to be approved by the FDA premarket; those not approved cannot be legally sold, according to the AP.
The proposal will be open for public comment during the next 60 days, during which the agency will collect comments and observations before determining the timeline of the removal of the substance for different foods, the AP reported. The timeline for removing trans fat from foods will vary and be determined by how quickly certain foods can find a replacement for that substance.
Michael Taylor, the FDA's deputy commissioner for food, believes the agency can remove trans fat from foods without disrupting the food markets, claiming that the food "industry has demonstrated that it is by and large feasible to do," the AP reported.
According to FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg, the amount of the substance being ingested has declined in the past decade, but the area is still a "significant public health concern," the AP reported. Hamburg said the move could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths caused by trans fat every year.
Trans fats have long been criticized by nutritionists, and New York and other local governments have already banned them, the AP reported.
In order for the FDA to remove trans fats from foods completely, the agency has labeled the substance as "generally recognized as not safe, and removed it from the list with acceptable additives that can be added to foods without the FDA review.
Under the new proposal, if anyone wants to use trans fats in their foods, they would have to petition the agency in a move that would most likely not be approved, according to the AP.
In order for the proposal not to pass, companies would have to prove partially hydrogenated oils are safe to eat, even though the Institute of Medicine has concluded there is no safe level of consumption for artificial trans fat, the Times reported.
