The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday (23) commended Sri Lanka for enacting legislation on trans-fat to protect health and to prevent premature deaths from coronary heart disease.

“Eliminating trans-fats from food supplies is a cost effective measure with enormous health benefits. By enacting legislation on trans-fat, Sri Lanka has once again demonstrated its resolve to protect and promote the health of its people,” said the WHO Regional Director South-East Asia Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh.

The legislation restricts the levels of industrially produced trans-fats in oil and food, and bans partially hydrogenated oils, the primary source of trans-fats in food.

Since 2018, the WHO has been working with countries to eliminate trans-fat from the food supply. High trans-fat intake increases the risk of death from any cause by 34%, coronary heart disease deaths by 28% and coronary heart disease by 21%.

In the WHO South-East Asia Region, nine million deaths, almost 69% of all deaths, are due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with cardiovascular diseases being a major cause.

Dr. Singh said that accelerating progress towards eliminating trans-fat through best-practice policies, monitoring and surveillance and healthy oil replacements can drive progress in our efforts to address NCDs.

With Sri Lanka implementing new regulations, the collective efforts by countries would now potentially protect over 1.6 billion people from the harm caused by trans-fatty acids.

Trans-fats can be easily replaced with healthier alternatives without compromising the taste or availability of food, to enhance the health and well-being of people and also help attain the Sustainable Development Goal targets of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by one-third by 2030.