Procrastination in transfat policy
Preventable premature deaths on rise
Reza Mahmud :
Unabated use of Transfat in foods causing health hazards and deaths in the country but it can be curbed with speedy legislation and strict enforcement.
According to the World Health Organization data, at least 5776 people die each year in Bangladesh due to transfat consumption alone, which means 460 people a month. The longer it takes to introduce policy on transfat, the number of unintended preventable deaths go higher.
Besides, the WHO outlined a deadline on keeping transfat to 2 per cent of total fat foods by 2023.
Transfat is an unwanted toxic element in foods mostly using in bakery foods like biscuits, cakes, pastry, chanachur and other items which causes health hazards and deaths.
Officials of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) said that they are concerned about the findings of alarming level of transfer in food items in the markets.
As per the WHO guidelines, countries around the globe have taken strict measures to get below 2 per cent transfat in foods but Bangladesh is lagging behind.
Though the BSFA has started to formulate a policy for regulating transfat, the progress of formulating the draft policy is at a very slow pace.
When contacted, BFSA Chairman Md Abdul Qayyum Sarkar told The New Nation on Monday, “We have prepared a draft policy roughly one week ago. Now we have to discuss it on a technical committee which meeting has been called immediately. Then the refurbished draft to be sent to the Ministry.”
The BSFA Chairman said that it may need six more months to take the draft as a policy or act.
Often found in processed foods, fast food, snacks, fried food, biscuits, cookies and margarine, transfat or TFA is type of fat content of food that increases the level of LDL (Low
Density Lipoprotein) known as ‘bad cholesterol’ in the blood serum and simultaneously reduces good cholesterol.
Excessive intake of TFA deposits LDL in blood vessels which block the blood flow. Resultantly, heart disease risks are increased which is a major cause of premature deaths, experts said.
The experts said that about 95 percent of the country’s population is unaware of the dire threats posed by transfats.
In a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), it said that two thirds of the world’s deaths caused by transfat-induced heart diseases occur in 15 countries and Bangladesh is listed among those countries.
Eyeing on the safety of public health, research and advocacy organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) is running a social media campaign titled ‘Heart Health Alert BD’.
ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA, told The New Nation, “Eliminating trans fat will save thousands of lives in the country each year from the deadly clutches of heart diseases.”
Unabated use of Transfat in foods causing health hazards and deaths in the country but it can be curbed with speedy legislation and strict enforcement.
According to the World Health Organization data, at least 5776 people die each year in Bangladesh due to transfat consumption alone, which means 460 people a month. The longer it takes to introduce policy on transfat, the number of unintended preventable deaths go higher.
Besides, the WHO outlined a deadline on keeping transfat to 2 per cent of total fat foods by 2023.
Transfat is an unwanted toxic element in foods mostly using in bakery foods like biscuits, cakes, pastry, chanachur and other items which causes health hazards and deaths.
Officials of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) said that they are concerned about the findings of alarming level of transfer in food items in the markets.
As per the WHO guidelines, countries around the globe have taken strict measures to get below 2 per cent transfat in foods but Bangladesh is lagging behind.
Though the BSFA has started to formulate a policy for regulating transfat, the progress of formulating the draft policy is at a very slow pace.
When contacted, BFSA Chairman Md Abdul Qayyum Sarkar told The New Nation on Monday, “We have prepared a draft policy roughly one week ago. Now we have to discuss it on a technical committee which meeting has been called immediately. Then the refurbished draft to be sent to the Ministry.”
The BSFA Chairman said that it may need six more months to take the draft as a policy or act.
Often found in processed foods, fast food, snacks, fried food, biscuits, cookies and margarine, transfat or TFA is type of fat content of food that increases the level of LDL (Low
Density Lipoprotein) known as ‘bad cholesterol’ in the blood serum and simultaneously reduces good cholesterol.
Excessive intake of TFA deposits LDL in blood vessels which block the blood flow. Resultantly, heart disease risks are increased which is a major cause of premature deaths, experts said.
The experts said that about 95 percent of the country’s population is unaware of the dire threats posed by transfats.
In a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), it said that two thirds of the world’s deaths caused by transfat-induced heart diseases occur in 15 countries and Bangladesh is listed among those countries.
Eyeing on the safety of public health, research and advocacy organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) is running a social media campaign titled ‘Heart Health Alert BD’.
ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA, told The New Nation, “Eliminating trans fat will save thousands of lives in the country each year from the deadly clutches of heart diseases.”
