Countdown to 2023: WHO 5-year milestone report on global trans fat elimination 2023

Overview

This fifth milestone report summarizes the progress from 2018-2023 towards the global elimination of industrially produced trans-fatty acids (TFA), highlighting impacts on public health. With a focus on public health impact, it summarizes progress towards the global target, highlights progress by WHO region, and describes the remaining challenges and policy recommendations to complete and sustain elimination.

Immense advances have been made. In 2023 alone, new best-practice policies became effective in seven countries (Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Philippines, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). At the end of 2023, WHO-recommended policies were in effect in 53 countries, covering 3.7 billion people or 46% of the world’s population, as compared to 6% just 5 years ago. Current best-practice policies could prevent approximately 66% of the total deaths originally estimated to be caused by TFA intake annually — equivalent to almost 183 000 lives saved each year.

By the end of 2025, WHO calls for best-practice policies in countries that together account for at least 90% of the total global TFA burden and at least 70% of the total TFA burden within each region.