Geneva: The world could eliminate industrially-produced trans fats by 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, unveiling a plan that it said would prevent 500,000 deaths per year from cardiovascular disease.
Trans fats are popular with manufacturers of fried, baked and snack foods because they have a long shelf life, but they are bad for consumers, increasing heart disease risk by 21% and deaths by 28%, a WHO statement said.
“Why should our children have such an unsafe ingredient in their foods?,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.
