Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the Royal Colleges on measures to reduce the prevalence of trans fats in food.

Jane Ellison

There have been no discussions with the royal colleges on measures to reduce the prevalence of trans fats in food.

Population average trans fats intakes account for 0.6-0.7% of food energy, which is well within the public health recommendation of 2% of food energy, and within the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of 1%.

Voluntary action by industry has been successful in removing artificial trans fats from a range of processed products. Over 70% of the retail and manufacturing market has committed to remove or not use artificial trans fats.

The European Commission’s report on trans fats intakes across the European Union, which is due to be published in December 2015, will inform our future thinking on trans fats.