Trans fats to be phased out in U.S.

Artificialtransfats will be phased out of processed foods, from microwave popcornto frozen pizza, to prevent fatal heart attacks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.

The U.S. regulator announced Tuesday that partially hydrogenated oils that raise levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad"cholesterol and lower "good" cholesterol will be significantly reduced in the food supply.

The Institute of Medicine has concluded that there is no safe level for consumption oftransfat.

Between 2003 and 2012, the FDA saidtransfat consumption by consumers in the U.S. decreased an estimated 78 percent as food companies turned to other oils. The FDA said current intake "remains a public health concern" in its final decision to declare artificialtransfats are not "generally recognized as safe" to add to foods without regulatory approval.

Manufacturers will have three years to removetransfat from foods that still commonly contain it, such as pie crusts, biscuits, microwave popcorn, coffee creamers, frozen pizza, refrigerated dough, vegetable shortenings and stickmargarines.

Partially hydrogenated oils are formed during food processing when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it more solid.

To avoidtransfats, the food industry has shifted towardother oils.

"What we replaced it with is pretty benign," saidWandaBeaver ofWanda'sPie in the Sky in Toronto. "It'scanolaor soy."

Major failing of public policy

Michael Jacobson, director of the U.S.Center for Science in the Public Interest, calledthe FDA's decision to phase outtransfats "probably the single most important thing the FDA has ever done for the healthfulness of the food supply."

The FDA has not targeted small amounts oftransfats that occur naturally in some meat and dairy products, because they would be too difficult to remove and aren't considered a major public health threat by themselves.

Bill Jeffery, nationalco-ordinatorforthe Centre for Science in the Public Interest in Ottawa, said Tuesday thatCanadian consumers may benefit indirectly from the U.S. move if American exports are as safe as those produced for domestic consumption.

In Canada, documents obtainedbyJeffery's groupshow the federal government planned to limit thetransfat content of vegetable oils and soft,spreadablemargarinesto two per cent of the total fat content and all other foods to five per cent. The announcement was never made.

Jeffrey isconcerned that the federal government is ignoringthe scientific consensus on the hazards oftransfat with a wait-and-see approach.

"We were one of the countries that had the highest rates of consumption oftransfat in the world, and so it's incumbent on us to be ahead of the curve," Jeffrey said.

As recently as 2009, Health Canada said about 1,000 people died prematurely fromtrans-fatrelated heart attack deaths every year.

"We don't know what current intake is, because Health Canada stopped measuring it. To me that's a pretty major failing of public policy to stop even monitoring something that is identified as a major public health risk is very problematic."

The Canadian and U.S.markets are integrated to a large extent, especially for processed foods,Health MinisterRonaAmbrose told reportersin Ottawa.

"We're going to have to look at what they're doing ontransfat and see how that will affect not only our industry but our labels as well," she said.

Health Canada stopped monitoringtransfat levelsin the food supplyin 2009, researchers say. The same year,British Columbia's government essentially bannedtransfat in restaurants,and Manitoba and Ontario governments outlawed itin foods sold in schools,Jeffery noted.