With the call “Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life” - for all, World Food Day 2021 was observed Saturday in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the world.
Marking the Day, National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh, PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), and Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) staged a virtual human chain, in association with Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), urging to immediately finalise the "Limiting Trans Fatty Acid in Food Stuffs Regulations 2021".
The Bangladesh Society for Safe Food (BSSF), Bangladesh Public Health Nutrition Association (BDPHNA), Food Organization, Bangladesh (FOB) and different multi-sectoral professionals, public health and safe food activists, and people of all ages, took the social networking site Facebook to showcase pictures of them holding placards, festoons and posters with the demand.
Presence of industrially produced trans-fat in food causes increased risks of heart diseases and related premature deaths. Almost half a million people die globally from trans-fat-induced coronary heart diseases each year.
Bangladesh ranks among the 15 countries with the highest burden of coronary heart disease deaths related to trans-fat.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set the target of eliminating trans-fat from the global food supply chain by 2023 and the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) is putting up efforts to formulate regulations to meet that target.
