U.S. FDA Works to Ban Trans Fat

The next step on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) agenda is to remove artificial trans fat from food products.

What's otherwise known as a specific type of fat that's formed when liquid oils are turned into solid fats, such as shortening or stick margarine, refers to hydrogenation and is added to vegetable oil to increase the shelf life and flavor stability of some foods, according to the health organization.

FDA is "responding to the fact that the science really demonstrates that trans fat provides no known health benefit and that there really is no safe level of consumption of trans fat," FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg said, via USA Today. "Consumption should be as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet."

Much evidence has suggested that trans fat intake can increase the risk of heart disease by raising low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, or what's commonly referred to as "bad" cholesterol. Trans fat has been a concern for some time and that's why ever since 2006, the FDA has required that food manufacturers declare the amount of trans fat on Nutrition Fact labels.

The FDA's blog notes that the consumption of trans fats has lowered from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to about 1 gram per day in 2012. Food manufacturers have also made significant progress in order to reduce the levels of trans fat found in processed foods.

However, health officials warn that there are still some products to watch out for, including such snack foods as microwave popcorn, frozen pizzas, cakes, cookies, coffee creamers, pies, stick margarine products and ready-to-use icing products.

The FDA will begin a 60-day public comment period in order to start removing trans fat from the agency's list of ingredients "generally regarded as safe."

"This is the first step in removing artificial trans fats from processed foods," Hamburg said, via USA Today.

However, she added that the process could take years.