The FDA announced Tuesday a mandate for all companies to phase out trans fats over the next three years in a move that will affect foods like frostings, microwave popcorn, coffee creamers, margarine, and various other items on American grocery store shelves.
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to remove trans fats from the list of foods that are “generally recognized as safe” is welcomed by the scientific community, but also comes at the expense of the food industry. Michael Jacobson, director of the
Center for Science in the Public Interest, told The Associated Press that the FDA’s decision “is probably the single most important thing the FDA has ever done for the healthfulness of the food supply.”
One of the most adamant supporters of the FDA’s decision is 100-year-old Fred Kummerow.
“Science won out . . . it’s very important that we don’t have this in our diet,” the former University of Illinois professor, who sued the FDA in 2013 for not
taking enough action on trans fats, told The Washington Post. Kummerow has been advocating for a ban on trans fats since publishing his own research in 1957 on how they clog arteries.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the largest food industry trade group, is working on a petition asking the FDA for permission to use trans fats when there is a “reasonable certainty of no harm” from using the fat in certain foods. The trade group said they appreciate the three-year period permitted to phase out trans fats, as the time “minimizes unnecessary disruptions to commerce.”
The FDA estimates that even though the ban will cost approximately $6 billion to implement, it will save more than $140 billion in
healthcare costs over 20 years, The New York Times reported.
The idea of a ban is nothing new. The FDA has required all foods with trans fats to be explicitly labeled for consumers’ safety and convenience since 2006. However, labels were only required if the product has more than half a gram of trans fats — any less than half a gram could be rounded to zero grams. The FDA’s ban will not change this policy.
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