The food control federal agency determines that its main component is harmful to health.

After years of legal battles over the safety of artificial fats trans in the United States, the Agency for Food and Drug Control Administration (FDA) has taken a decisive step to permanently remove these substances from processed foods, chemical components, according to experts, are harmful to health. The Agency has stated that these new measures do not affect trans fats found naturally arising in some meats and olive oil (if it is overheated much). In scientific terms, trans fats are those that arise when the oil is treated with hydrogen gas and becomes solid-called hydrogenation process.

‘If scientific evidence says that a product is bad for your health, our role is to protect the citizens, and this is what we are doing in the case of hydrogenated oils, the largest source containing artificial trans fats’, explains the Agency in a statement.

‘We understand that these changes will require significant changes,’ said at a press conference Michael Taylor, head of FDA. ‘This step is essential to prevent further people exposed to a chemical that most of the time do not know what is in their food,’ he added.

‘For years, many companies have shown that processed foods can be created without the use of trans fats. Through these efforts and nutrition education has ensured that the consumption of these substances reduce the nation’, have pointed out the experts in the text. Great fast food franchises like McDonalds, Kentuchy Fried Chicken or Dunkin Donuts no longer use it for years.

While in 2006, Americans consumed 4.6 grams of these fats per day, in 2012, took a gram on average, according to the FDA. In addition, a report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention US concluded that blood levels of this substance in the population fell by 58% from 2000-2009. Despite this positive data, one in three Americans has heart problem.

In 2007, the latest data collected by the CDC, 150,000 people died under the age of 65 by heart attack in the US and four million citizens had to face some kind of disability by developing certain disease. According to experts of the Agency, this initiative could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths in the country, the statement said.

Following the announcement of the decision, the FDA has opened within 60 days for food companies, and the general public, bring their point of view, even if everything goes according to the plan, the federal agency declared that ‘no hydrogenated oils are healthy for consumption’ causing need to be removed from all processed and affect many companies of this type of food in the US.

Artificial trans fats are one of the main ingredients in processed foods that need to be fried or roasted and products common in US households, and the world, such as margarine, food cheaper than butter, containing natural animal fat. These substances are still used in microwave popcorn, in some desserts, in frozen pizzas and industrial bakery among others.

The FDA based its decision on scientific evidence and studies that have years concluding that their consumption is harmful for health. This federal department had already determined a few years ago the need for these fats appear printed on the labels of these products processed a step that led many companies eliminate them.

In 2006, the city of New York passed the law that restaurants in the city ‘had to stop cooking with these substances’, an initiative organized by the then mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The Big Apple was the first US city to implement a similar measure and the regulation came into force in 2008.

Those responsible for Public Health in the US have applauded the decision of the FDA. ‘Although much of this material has disappeared, it is still a problem and must be treated,’ said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in Public Health and has been fighting for this measure’ success since 1994, reported The New York Times. If you like to know more in this reference, you might like to visit www.reviewlization.com/