Trans Fat Task Force Case Study

Food industries throughout the globe including Canada initially resisted the call to remove trans fats from the food supply citing increased costs in production, reformulation difficulties and reduced food product quality.7 At one point Canada had the highest levels of trans fat consumption in the world attributed to high intake of processed foods containing trans fat used as a cheap preservative - a food systems trend made popular in the 1980s era reliance on ready-to-eat meals and minimal preparation food products.140 Canada has since seen huge reductions in trans-fat within the food supply.7, 141 Various levels of Canadian government recognized the public health nutrition issue and took action. In the province of British Columbia, the government regulated trans-fat in the restaurant and food service sector by establishing strict thresholds limits.7 At the federal level, The Trans Fat Task Force was formed in early 2005, a direct result of an opposition motion in Parliament, calling for the establishment of a collaborative stakeholder task force.142 The motion passed in November 2004 and designated Health Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, a NGO, as task force co-chairs with a mandate to develop recommendations and strategies "to effectively eliminate or reduce processed trans fats in Canadian foods to the

In response to the report, the federal government did not legislate any bans or mandate targets, but rather set voluntary recommended levels and required that food products display the level of trans fat on the Nutrition Facts table.7 The 2007 voluntary guidelines for the food system did align with the Task Force report and recommended that trans fats be reduced to a maximum of 2 per cent of total fat content in vegetable oils and margarine and 5 per cent in other foods.21 The voluntary approach also included a warning to the food industry concerning the prospect of regulated national limits should progress not be made within two