Experts call for ban on food fats

Trans fats – also known as trans fatty acids – are found in many cakes, pastries, pies, chips and fast foods.

They are chemically altered vegetable oils which increase the shelf life of products but have no nutritional value.

Today, experts said the UK should follow the example of several other places – Denmark, New York, California, Switzerland and Austria – in banning trans fats.

Writing online in the British Medical Journal, they said trans fats raise levels of bad cholesterol and reduce good cholesterol, and are likely to promote weight gain, diabetes, insulin resistance and irregular heartbeat.

Eating trans fats is linked to a "substantial risk of heart disease events", including heart attacks and death from coronary disease, added the experts, from Harvard Medical School in Boston in the US.

In developed nations, the average population consumption of trans fats is often two per cent to four per cent of total calorie intake. But some lower income groups may be eating as much as 8%.

The authors predicted that cutting overall consumption of trans fats in England by only one per cent would lead to 11,000 fewer heart attacks each year and 7,000 fewer deaths.

Legislating to remove trans fats would not necessarily mean the fats were replaced with saturated fats, which are also bad for health.

There is also no evidence that removing the fats affects taste or cost.

Action in the UK may also inspire other countries to take similar

steps, they said.

The article comes after the UK Faculty of Public Health and the Royal Society for Public Health said earlier this year that trans fats should be virtually eliminated in the UK by next year.

According to the Foods Standards Agency, consumption of trans fats in the UK is about one per cent of total energy intake "and therefore not a cause for concern".

In 2007, an agency review of trans fats showed the current position – with industry removing many trans fats voluntarily – was working, with no need to legislate. "US average intakes of trans fats are more than 2.5 times the UK," the review said.