Cost will be around $12-$14 billion.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that the use of partially hydrogenated oils must be phased out over the next three years.
The move will force the makers of a plethora of food items to find new ways to keep their products fresh on shelves.
The ingredient keeps food from spoiling faster and gives it an appealing texture, but is also the main source of trans fats in Americans’ diets, which leads to higher cholesterol and risk of heart attack.
“The FDA’s action on this major source of artificial trans fat demonstrates the agency’s commitment to the heart health of all Americans,” said Dr. Stephen Ostroff, the agency’s acting commissioner, in a news release. “This action is expected to reduce coronary heart disease and prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks every year.”
The FDA estimates the cost of the transition to food manufacturers will be $12 billion to $14 billion. They will have to pay to research and test new ingredients plus reprint labels and repackage products, which could cost up to $200,000 per product, Roger Clemens, a pharmacology professor at University of Southern California, told USA Today.
Prior to becoming a popular ingredient in processed and fast foods, trans fat was introduced into the American diet as early as 1911 in the form of shortening or hydrogenated vegetable oil, which was used for cooking and making pies.
“In many ways, trans fat is a real tragic story for the American diet,” Dr. Steven Nissen, the chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, told CNN. “In the 1950s and ’60s, we mistakenly told Americans that butter and eggs were bad for them and pushed people to margarine, which is basically trans fat. What we’ve learned now is that saturated fat is relatively neutral — it is the trans fat that is really harmful and we had made the dietary situation worse.”