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Raising awareness against trans fat in food

January 14, 2021 00:00:00


It is a good piece of news that the government of Bangladesh has taken a move to formulate a policy to limit trans fat in food items. Trans fat, which is an industrially produced unsaturated fat from vegetable oil, is very harmful for health. Consuming excessive trans fat is strongly associated with increased risk of severe coronary heart disease, death from heart disease, dementia and cognitive impairment. Around 277,000 people die of heart disease each year in Bangladesh. WHO estimates that excessive intake of trans fat is responsible for more than 500,000 heart disease deaths globally.

The trend of spreading non-communicable diseases is now a threat for all of us. To minimise the diffusion of this type of diseases, creating awareness among people is urgently needed. It is known that the authorities will soon hold a meeting with the stakeholders to formulate a policy to limit trans fat in food. The Department of Agricultural Extension under the Ministry of Agriculture can be considered as a major stakeholder in this regard. Alongside, recently retired DAE officials having minimum knowledge about food nutrients may come forward voluntarily to make people aware of this silent toxic killer.

Md Refatul Hossain

Additional Director (PRL),

Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Faridpur

[email protected]


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