If you have read my chapter in the book Global Obligations for the Right to Food - or this blog - then you will have seen the lessons learned from different ways of encouraging companies to reduce the level of transfats in foods. In short, with regulations they do so, with encouragement for voluntary action they, at best, introduce some low-transfat products and market them as healthier, putting the onus on the consumer to choose the healthier option and, most likely, pay extra for the privilege.
Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, is taking on the food industry and has signed a law requiring companies to remove transfats from products by 2010.
There is a report here on the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7526624.stm
This states: "A review by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006 concluded that there was a strong connection between the consumption of trans-fats and coronary heart disease. It found they boosted "bad" cholesterol levels in the body. The review said that eliminating artificial trans-fats from the food supply could prevent between six and 19% of heart attacks and related deaths each year."
They are used to extend the shelf life of products and have no nutritional benefit.
The move was opposed by the California Restaurant Association according to the BBC.
Thanks to Rob A for posting the link on a comment to an earlier blog here. I really do appreciate people alerting me to information they think may be useful.
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1 comment:
Schwarzenegger: worst governor ever.
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