These substances kill 13,153 Mexicans a year, according to the World Health Organization
The Chamber of Deputies has unanimously approved —472 votes, 0 against and 0 abstentions— the regulation of trans fats to the point of almost completely banning them. This substance is used for the manufacture of fried foods such as potatoes or batters, packaged such as some margarines and butters, or processed such as cookies, buns, and other sweets. This type of fat kills 13,153 Mexicans a year and some 500,000 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has been fighting for years to limit the consumption of this product as much as possible.
The approved opinion adds article 216 Bis to the General Health Law and determines that “oils, edible fats, food and non-alcoholic beverages may not contain partially hydrogenated oils”, the substance prior to trans fats. In addition, “food, non-alcoholic beverages, oils and fats” may not contain more than two parts of industrially produced trans-fat for every 100 parts of normal fat.
Thus, the regulation is comparable to regions such as the European Union and is in line with the indications of the UN, which has congratulated Mexico in a Twitter post after the measure was approved. “We congratulate Mexico for this important advance for the benefit of health,” the message said.
Trans fats are produced when food manufacturers convert liquid oils into solid fats that extend the shelf life of products and increase their stability at high temperatures. The companies that use this substance in their production chain will have 90 days to eliminate trans fat from their composition, just when general inflation makes these products increasingly appetizing, not so much for their nutritional value, but because they resist the increase in prices.
An Overseas Research Institute study conducted in high-income and emerging countries found that over the past 30 years, the price of healthy foods has risen more than that of processed foods. The phenomenon is accentuated in times of inflation.
The measure was approved by the Senate in October 2021, but was pending approval by the Chamber of Deputies. It comes after the battle against trans fats that the WHO began in 2018, when it first called for the global elimination of the consumption of this substance due to the risk it has of causing overweight, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes.
Other countries such as Denmark, the United States and Canada, in addition to the European Union, have already legislated in this regard. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, warned that “fats have no known benefits and pose enormous health risks”, which also “generate enormous costs for health systems”.
In a forum held in the Chamber of Deputies last September, legislators agreed on the urgent need to eliminate trans fats from industrial food production in Mexico. Deputy Margarita Valdez, president of the Health Commission, said that “in the 21st century we realize that most foods contain those famous trans fats”, which must be “regulated due to the damage they cause to any person, including boys and girls.
Deputy Emmanuel Reyes Carmona explained that there is a wide body of evidence that has shown the detrimental effects of these fats on metabolism, as well as the positive relationship between the amount of trans fats consumed and coronary heart disease. “High consumption of these fats increases the risk of death by more than 34%,” said the deputy. Of the 500,000 deaths that have been recorded due to the consumption of this substance in the world, 160,000 correspond to Latin America.
Source: El Pais
