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Approaches to removing trans fats from the food supply in industrialized and developing countries

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 63, pages S50–S67 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

A number of approaches have been initiated by governmental and public health organizations in different countries to reduce trans-fatty acid (TFA) intakes. These have included nutrition recommendations with regard to TFAs and general nutrition recommendations regarding the selection of healthy fats, programmes to raise awareness about the adverse effects of TFAs through nutrition and health claims, voluntary or mandatory labelling of the trans content of foods, voluntary or legislated programmes to encourage or force industry to reformulate food products to remove TFAs, the promotion of health and agricultural policies that encourage the production of healthy alternatives to trans fat and finally, mandatory regulation of food standards to remove or reduce the TFA content. This paper reviews a number of initiatives to reduce the intake of TFAs underway in selected industrialized and developing countries, which serves to illustrate the merits and limitations of the available options and how the approaches that have been taken reflect local conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their thanks to Dr Jillian Boreham for providing Figure 4. The authors also thank Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, Dr Srinath Reddy and Professor Ricardo Uauy for their valuable peer-review comments on the draft manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bureau of Nutritional Sciences, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    M R L'Abbé

  2. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, Denmark

    S Stender

  3. Department of Human Nutrition University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    C M Skeaff

  4. Department of Biochemistry, National Institute of Nutrition (retired), PO Jamai Osmania, Hyderabad, India

    Ghafoorunissa

  5. Program for the Prevention of Infarcts in Argentina (PROPIA), La Plata National University, La Plata, Argentina

    M Tavella

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  1. M R L'Abbé
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  2. S Stender
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  4. Ghafoorunissa
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  5. M Tavella
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Correspondence to M R L'Abbé.

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L'Abbé, M., Stender, S., Skeaff, C. et al. Approaches to removing trans fats from the food supply in industrialized and developing countries. Eur J Clin Nutr 63 (Suppl 2), S50–S67 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2009.14

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Keywords

  • trans fat
  • labelling
  • Denmark
  • Canada
  • New York City
  • Argentina
  • India

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