COVID-19: NHED, CAPPA seek elimination of trans-fat in Nigeria foods
By Chioma Obinna
Worried about the increasing risk of heart attack among Nigerians, Civil Society Organisations have launched a series of Public Service Announcements, PSAs, on regulating trans-fat consumption in Nigeria even as they called on the Federal government to take urgent steps to limit trans-fat in food supplies.
This is coming at a time the World Health Organisation’s had made trans-fat elimination a priority and called on countries to enact mandatory measures to protect public health from trans-fat consumption.
WHO is also considering a mandatory limit of 2g of trans-fat per 100g of total fat in all fats, oils, and foods to be a best-practice measure.
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At a virtual launch of the project by the Network for Health Equity and Development, NHED, and Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, the groups expressed concern on the public health dangers posed by trans-fat in the human body, lamenting that the impacts would be far more insidious under the COVID-19 pandemic unless urgent action is taken to address the problem.
Speaking, the Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi said studies have shown that sustained high trans-fat in the body, leads to conditions including, increased bad cholesterol, lowered good cholesterol, coronary heart disease, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other cognitive diseases.
Oluwafemi added that trans-fat consumption also increases the risk of heart attack with an estimated 540,000 fatalities globally in 2010.
He said the latest available data showed that out of the 540,000, 1,261 were recorded in Nigeria.
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On his part, NHED Technical Adviser, Dr. Jerome Mafeni explained that “Industrially produced trans-fatty acids are silent killers which very few people know about yet they are present in many of the foods we all love to eat.”
The newly released trans-fat PSAs will be broadcast and featured on the #TransfatFreeNigeria campaign’s social media channels.
Presently, at least 29 countries have taken steps to limit trans-fat in their food supplies, including South Africa, India, Brazil, UK, USA, Canada, Turkey, and Thailand. There has been a consistent call from health experts and advocates for Nigeria to follow suit.
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