SINGAPORE RECEIVES AWARD FROM WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION FOR EFFORTS IN TRANS-FAT ELIMINATION

              Singapore has received the Trans-Fatty Acid (TFA) Elimination Validation Award from the World Health Organization (WHO) on 19 May 2025. The award is part of the WHO’s Validation Programme for Trans-fat Elimination and recognises Member States for having a framework in place to eliminate industrially produced TFA from their national food supplies. The certificate of validation was presented by the Director-General of the WHO at the 78^th World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland. The other countries that received the Award are Austria, Norway and Oman.

2.              Trans-fat consumption is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases[1]^,[2]. A review of 19 studies involving nearly one million participants found that a 2g increase in daily trans-fat intake was associated with a 6% higher risk of cardiovascular disease mortality[3]. WHO has identified the elimination of industrially produced TFA as a priority target for its General Programme of Work from 2019 to 2023, and established the Validation Programme for Trans-fat Elimination to evaluate and validate the efforts of Member States to eliminate industrially produced TFA.

3.             In Singapore, a key source of trans-fat in Singaporeans’ diets is industrially produced trans-fat in fats and cooking oils, which comes mainly from the presence of partially hydrogenated oils (PHO) formed during an industrial process to increase the shelf-life of products. To help Singaporeans reduce their intake of trans-fat, the Ministry of Health and Health Promotion Board (HPB) has pursued trans-fat elimination since 2013.

4.             First, a limit was imposed on trans-fat content in all fats and oils supplied to food services establishments and manufacturers, as well as those sold in retail settings. This halved Singaporean’s average daily trans-fat intake from 2.1g in 2010 to 1.0g in 2018. Subsequently, in support of the WHO’s call to eliminate trans-fat from dietary intake, Singapore announced the enhancement of the trans-fat regulation in 2019 to prohibit the use of PHO as an ingredient in all foods sold in Singapore. We also worked with major food companies to reformulate their products to be PHO-free one year ahead of the ban which took effect from 2021. These companies accounted for 50% of the market share across high-risk food product categories, such as baked goods, snacks, prepared meals and fat spreads. This has led to a further reduction in Singaporeans’ average daily trans-fat intake to 0.2g in 2022. 

5.             Since the implementation of the PHO ban, compliance amongst food and beverage companies remains high. HPB will continue to conduct regular surveillance and monitor the average daily trans-fat intake among Singaporeans.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH
HEALTH PROMOTION BOARD 

19 MAY 2025 

[1] Mozaffarian et al (2009), Health effects of trans-fatty acids: experimental and observational evidence. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 63, S5-S21.

[2] World Health Organization (2016), Effects of trans fatty acids intake on blood lipids and lipoproteins: A systematic review and meta-regression analysis.

[3] Kim, Y., Je, Y., Giovannucci, E., & Chang, Y. (2021), Association between dietary fat intake and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Clinical Nutrition, 40(3), 1060–1070.