Public health advocates praise FDA's plan to end trans fat use

Public health advocates are praising the Food and Drug Administration's bid to end to the use of trans fats in foods, a move the agency said could significantly reduce deaths from heart disease.

On Thursday, the FDA announced preliminary rules that would phase out the use of partially hydrogenated oils in food, a move some food companies have begun making on their own in recent years.

“While consumption of potentially harmful artificial trans fat has declined over the last two decades in the United States, current intake remains a significant public health concern,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said. “Further reduction in the amount of trans fat in the American diet could prevent an additional 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year, a critical step in the protection of Americans' health.”

“There are scant or trace amounts of this (trans fats) that may occur naturally, but for the most part this is a totally synthetic fat that provides no nutritional value and is truly armful to the vasculature,” said Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of the division of cardiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Hamburg said the FDA made a preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils, a major source of trans fats in processed foods, are “not generally recognized as being safe to use in foods.” She said if the agency makes a final determination partially hydrogenated oils are not safe, they would be considered a “food additive,” requiring food manufacturers to seek authorization before they could be used.

That means food companies would have to demonstrate “scientifically that there's a reasonable certainty of no harm from the use of the ingredient,” said Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine. “In light of the findings we're putting out today, we have solid evidence that there are public health concerns associated with the use of the ingredient.”

Exactly when the FDA plans to make a final determination is yet to be known. Hamburg said the agency would begin taking public comments for the next 60 days in the hope of getting feedback from food manufacturers in order to gauge how much time they would need in order to make the transition.

Trans fats are made when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil in order to preserve food longer. Over the past decade, trans fats have been recognized to increase the risk of heart disease by raising the level of low-density lipoprotein, or bad cholesterol, while lowering the body's levels of high-density lipoprotein, which are considered good cholesterol.

Taylor said the day's announcement is part of the FDA's ongoing campaign to reduce Americans' intake of trans fats, which the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention estimates to be on average 1.3 grams a day. In 2006, the agency began requiring food manufacturers to include trans fats levels on the nutrition labels of their products. A number of states and cities across the country have implemented bans on trans fats in restaurants in recent years, beginning with New York City in 2006.

American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown called the FDA's move “a tremendous step forward in the fight against heart disease,” noting that the association has long advocated eliminating trans fats from the food supply. “We commend the FDA for responding to the numerous concerns and evidence submitted over the years about the dangers of this industrially produced ingredient.”

Northwestern Memorial's Yancy said the true impact of the agency's decision might be in the way it helps people make smarter food choices.

“Eliminating trans fats will not eliminate heart disease,” Yancy said. “But if this is part of a dynamic that helps people make wiser choices that helps people survey each food item they might select and determine if it's nutritious for them, I think this will set in play as series of decisions and steps that will lead toward healthier dietary consumption.”

Follow Steven Ross Johnson on Twitter: @MHSjohnson