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Billions still exposed to toxic trans fat: WHO

AFP
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2023

GENEVA: Five billion people are exposed to higher heart disease risks through trans fat, the World Health Organisation said on Monday, calling out countries that have failed to act against the toxic substance.

The WHO issued an appeal in 2018 for the industrially produced fatty acids in foods to be eliminated worldwide by 2023 amid evidence it caused 500,000 premature deaths every year. Although 43 countries with combined populations of 2.8 billion people have now implemented best-practice policies, the other five billion plus people on the planet remain unprotected, the UN´s health agency said.

It said Egypt, Australia and South Korea are among countries that have not enacted such policies and have particularly high rates of heart disease from trans fat. “Trans fat is a toxic chemical that kills, and should have no place in food,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.”