European Commission on trans fatty acids

December 8th, 2015

The European Commission at 3 December presented its report on the need to reduce trans fatty acids (TFA) in the diet. High intake of TFA is a risk factor for coronary heart disease, that is responsible for around 660 thousand deaths annually in the EU. Such reduction can be realized by legislative actions, such as TFA limits in foodstuffs or mandatory TFA labelling, and voluntary measures such as voluntary reformulation.

Although the majority of food products in Europe contains less than 2 gram TFA per 100 gram fat, there are still product groups on the market with high levels of TFA. For instance biscuits and (pre-packed) bakery products. The average daily intake of TFA in Europe seems to be decreasing, but in low-income groups the recommended levels can be exceeded. The European Commission notes that all existing TFA reduction approaches can significantly reduce TFA levels in food. The EC proposes possible EU measures to further reduce TFA intake: mandatory TFA content declaration; EU legal limit on industrial TFA content of food and voluntary agreements towards reducing industrial TFA in foods and diets at EU level. In a first discussion a number of EU health ministers asked for mandatory TFA limits.

TFA is one of the nutrients in the Choices criteria. Modelling studies in a number of countries demonstrate that a full Choices-compliant diet almost completely reduces the intake of TFA. (see A. Roodenburg, PLOS 2011 and EW de Menezes, Food Chemistry 2013)

Read the full report of the European Commission here (PDF).