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Health & Fitness

FDA calls for ban on trans-fats

The FDA announced that the trans-fat in processed food is not considered safe and will no longer be acceptable for the American consumer.

The move to banning trans-fat from food will prevent an additional 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year and up to 20,000 heart attacks each year, according to a press release issued by the FDA.

While the FDA begins to set their lengthy timeline combating the age-old fight against trans-fats, consumers should be aware to not hold their breath on the issue.  The change in processing food may take some time before consumers can be assured there will be no issue with processed food.

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In reaction to the announcement made by the FDA, the Center for the Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group, accepted the pending new regulations for the food industry.

"Artificial trans-fat is a uniquely powerful promoter of heart disease, and today's announcement will hasten its eventual disappearance from the food supply," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson, in a previously conducted interview by CSPI official. "Not only is artificial trans-fat not safe, it's not remotely necessary. Many companies, large and small, have switched to healthier oils over the past decade. I hope that those restaurants and food manufacturers that still use this harmful ingredient see the writing on the wall and promptly replace it."

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The FDA’s fight against the usage of trans-fat in food has waged since the 1990s when CSPI petitioned for the food industry to require a labeling informing the consumers.

"Getting rid of artificial trans-fat is one of the most important life-saving measures the FDA could take," said Jacobson in a press release posted on the agency’s website. "Thousands of heart attack deaths will be prevented in the years ahead. The FDA deserves credit for letting science, and not politics, shape its new proposed policy on artificial trans-fat."

While the FDA come to an agreement on how to proceed with the eradication of trans-fat they will be accepting comments from the public, including professionals within the business, according to the press release posted on the FDA’s website.

As the FDA moves to help consumers in terms of their health trans-fat wouldn't be completely gone, according to Dennis Keefe, director of the FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety. Keefe noted that trans-fats also occur naturally in small amounts in meat and dairy products in the press release on the FDA’s website. 

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