WHO congratulates Nepal for legislation to restrict trans-fatty acids in food

WHO congratulates Nepal for legislation to restrict trans-fatty acids in food

Kathmandu, Feb 17: The World Health Organization (WHO) has congratulated Nepal for formulating law on restricting levels of industrially produced trans-fatty acids in food items.

Issuing a press statement recently, Saima Wazed, Regional Director for South East Asia, lauded Nepal for taking steps to curb the production of trans-fat through legislation, a move aimed at promoting health and saving lives.

"Eliminating trans-fatty acids is a cost-effective measure with great health benefits in preventing premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases," said Director Wazed.

She expressed her confidence that the new legislation would potentially protect nearly 80 per cent of the South East Asia Region's population from the harms of trans-fatty acids. Trans-fat is found in industrially produced vegetable ghee and oil.

Nepal issued the new laws on trans-fatty acids on February 8 in the Nepal gazette. The new legislation mandates that the amount of trans-fat should not exceed 2 per cent of the weight of the total fatty acids contained in the food items.

Globally, 540,000 deaths are attributed to intake of industrially produced trans-fatty acids, according to the WHO. "High trans-fat intake significantly increases the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases. Trans-fat has no known health benefits," said the press statement.

In the WHO South-East Asia Region, non-communicable diseases cause 69 per cent of the nearly nine million deaths every year with cardiovascular diseases being the major cause of death, according to the press statement.

Nepal has become the fifth nation to issue the legislation on trans-fatty acid after Thailand, India and Bangladesh adopted the regulations on the same in 2022 while Sri Lanka followed suit in 2023.

The WHO has expresses its confidence that the elimination of trans-fatty acids from the food supply would enhance the health and wellbeing of people and also help attaint the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target of reducing premature mortality by one-third from non-communicable diseases by 2030.