9.7.11

Stop Trans Fats - educating consumers & public awareness

... a campaign to educate consumers and raise public awareness about the extreme dangers of trans fatty acids


[see also:Ban Trans Fats: The Campaign to Ban Partially Hydrogenated Oils and tfX: Home]


STOP TRANS FATS is a campaign aimed at encouraging consumers to stop taking trans fatty acids – artificial fats found in products like margarine, partially hydrogentated vegetable oils and vegetable shortenings – which are now known to be extremely harmful to health. Among other things, these artificial fats cause or contribute to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

This campaign is inspired by the US-based not-for-profit organisation, BanTransFats, but with a slight difference in approach and emphasis.

BanTransFats focuses its efforts on influencing governments and large food companies to eliminate these harmful fats from the food chain and, in some instances, uses legal action to accomplish its mission. For example, BanTransFats shot to prominence in 2003 when it sued Kraft in to eliminate trans fat in Oreos. BanTransFats also sued McDonald's in 2003 for misleading its customers into believing that it had switched to a lower trans fat cooking oil.