Singapore honored by WHO for eliminating industrial trans fats

Singapore has been awarded the Trans-Fatty Acid Elimination Validation Award by the World Health Organization (WHO), in recognition of its efforts to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from the national food supply.

Trans fat consumption is strongly linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, Singapore's Ministry of Health said Monday in a statement. The WHO also noted that trans fats clog arteries are responsible for more than 278,000 deaths worldwide each year.

"Eliminating industrially produced trans fats is one of the most cost-effective strategies to reduce the global burden of cardiovascular diseases," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. This year, the award was presented to four countries, namely Austria, Norway, Oman, and Singapore.

In Singapore, a major source of trans fats in the local diet has been industrially produced trans fats in fats and cooking oils, mainly due to the presence of partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), which are created through an industrial process to prolong shelf life, the health ministry said.

Singapore began its efforts to eliminate trans fats in 2013. It first introduced limits on trans fat content in all fats and oils supplied to food service establishments, manufacturers, and retail outlets. In 2019, the government announced a further tightening of regulations to ban the use of PHOs as an ingredient in all food sold in the country.

The Ministry of Health also collaborated with major food companies to reformulate their products to be PHO-free one year ahead of the ban, which took effect from 2021.