Oman Takes Part in launching the 4th WHO Report on Trans-fat Elimination
9/2/2023
The Sultanate of Oman, represented by the Department of Nutrition in the Ministry of Health, participated in the launching of the World Health Organization (WHO) 2022 report on the trans-fats elimination, which was held virtually under the chair of H.E. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - Director General of the World Health Organization.
The meeting began with a speech by the WHO Director of Nutrition and Food Safety, followed by an address by H.E. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who emphasized that there is no health benefit from the industrially produced trans-fatty acids (TFA).
They thanked all countries that responded to this global goal and encouraged other countries to eliminate Trans-fat.
The fourth annual report came to monitor global progress towards the 2023 goal of eliminating industrially produced TFA, highlighting the achievements over the past year (October 2021-September 2022).
Many countries of the world have taken additional measures to eliminate industrially produced TFA, including the Republic of India, which introduced, in January 2022, a number of policies and practices to eliminate trans-fat, as well as Uruguay in May 2022, the Sultanate of Oman in July 2022 and several other countries.
In this regard, the Sultanate of Oman took measures and issued, in April 2022, a decision banning the use of trans-fat. Oman shared its experience during this meeting as one of the countries that applied best practices alongside the Republic of Argentina and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is worth noting that the elimination of industrially produced TFA is one of the ten goals of the National Nutrition Strategy in the Sultanate of Oman 2020-2030. The Sultanate of Oman and Saudi Arabia are the only two countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region that have banned the use of industrially produced TFA so far.