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Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) CEO Shri Arun Singhal explains how India plans to cap trans fats before the WHO deadline of 2023.

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00:00 This is a very important problem facing the society today. Reduction of trans fat is an
00:08 absolute must and the entire world is struggling with this issue. The world has resolved, WHO
00:15 has resolved that we will bring it down to 2% by the year 2023. Now you see there are
00:21 three aspects to reducing trans fat consumption. One is to provide information to the public.
00:28 Unless they know what they are consuming, they can't make any informed choices. The
00:31 second is the regulatory aspect. And the third of course is to engage with all the stakeholders
00:36 and to ensure that trans fat free or low trans fat products become available to people because
00:42 unless they have choices, they can't really reduce their consumption of trans fat. So
00:46 as far as information is concerned, we already have rules in our country that every packet
00:50 of food has to display the level of trans fat. It is transparently displayed nowadays.
00:55 But regulation is the critical aspect before we make progress. On the regulatory front,
01:02 right now we have a stipulation that no oils will contain more than 5% trans fat. That
01:08 is the existing position. In addition to this, we have a trans fat free logo which is given
01:13 to products which are very low trans fat. So this trans fat free logo is given to restaurants
01:18 also, food establishments where low trans fat food is being prepared. We have this logo
01:23 system which can be seen by the public and people can go to restaurants which serve trans
01:28 fat free food. One important aspect is to help school children, youngsters to avoid
01:34 having trans fat. Because if they start young, then they can continue their habits later
01:39 on. So good habits should develop at a very early stage. With that in mind, now we have
01:44 come out with a new regulation. It is being notified very shortly, which says that high
01:49 fat salt and sugar products which are commonly referred to as junk food will not be sold
01:56 and will not be marketed, advertised in campuses of schools and in areas within 50 meters of
02:03 the school gate. So this is one regulation which is going to ensure that healthy food,
02:09 nutritious food is made available in school canteens and children start having healthy
02:14 food at a very young age. The other aspect is about the levels of fat which are trans
02:20 fat which are allowed right now. As I said it is 5% at present. Now I am very happy,
02:26 yesterday we had a presentation before the Honorable Health Minister and he has kindly
02:31 given his approval to a new regulation which is saying that by the year 2022, we will have
02:39 2% trans fat only in all oils and vegetable fats. It is to be done in a phased manner.
02:46 By 1st of January 2021, it will be reduced to 3% from 5% right now and by the next year
02:52 2022, it will come down to 2% and this is in keeping with our commitment that when India
02:58 celebrates 75 years of freedom, we would like to have less than 2% trans fat. This regulation
03:04 is going to be published, it is a final regulation which will come out very shortly. Apart from
03:08 that we are also coming out with a draft regulation which says that in all processed food, the
03:15 amount of trans fat should not be more than 2% of the fat content in that processed food.
03:21 So this is a draft stage, this also will be published shortly and it may take some time
03:26 to get finalized, may take 5 or 6 months but for oils and vegetable fats, we are very shortly
03:30 coming out with the final regulation saying that it has to be reduced from 5% to 3% and
03:36 then from 3% to 2% by the year 2022. This is the regulatory aspect but you see regulations
03:42 alone don't really win the war. Ultimately we have to engage with all the stakeholders.
03:49 So when we say information is mandatory and the regulation says that trans fat free products
03:54 or low trans fat free products have to be made available, the question is how do they
03:57 actually become available. There the crux of the matter lies there. So in the next phase,
04:03 as soon as we have this regulation, we will go for very intense engagement with all the
04:08 stakeholders. There are multinational companies which have reduced trans fat in their products
04:13 worldwide and there are Indian companies which have the potential of reducing trans fat.
04:19 So what is required is to engage with all of them, make expert advice and scientific
04:24 advice available to them, make them share their own experiences with each other and
04:30 ultimately ensure that low trans fat products become available to the customer. The consumer
04:36 should have a choice and then he can choose to go for low trans fat. But if we have a
04:40 regulation, if we make information available but products do not become available in the
04:44 market, then it is a wasted effort. So that is the most critical aspect which we have
04:49 to focus on now that the regulation is in place and we will focus on that now.
04:53 Thank you.

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