(CNN) — So long, frozen pizza: Trans fat in foods may eventually become a thing of the past.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday took a first step toward potentially eliminating most trans fat from the food supply, saying it has made a preliminary determination that a major source of trans fats — partially hydrogenated oils — is no longer “generally recognized as safe.”
If the preliminary determination is finalized, according to the FDA, then partially hydrogenated oils will become food additives that could not be used in food without approval. Foods with unapproved additives cannot legally be sold.
Trans fat can be found in processed foods including desserts, microwave popcorn products, frozen pizza, margarine and coffee creamer, and has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease.
Partially hydrogenated oil is formed when hydrogen is added to liquid oils to make solid fats, like shortening and margarine. It increases the shelf life and the flavor of foods. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, or shortening, was used in American kitchens as early as 1911.
However, in recent years many food manufacturers have taken steps to limit or eliminate trans fat from their products. McDonald’s, for instance, stopped cooking their french fries in trans fat more than a decade ago. The company’s website says all its fried menu items are free of trans fat.
Trans fat intake among American consumers decreased from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to about a gram a day in 2012, according to the FDA.
However, “current intake remains a significant public health concern,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a written statement.
There is no safe level of consumption of trans fat, Hamburg said. It has been shown to raise the “bad,” or LDL, cholesterol.
The FDA has opened a 60-day comment period on the determination “to collect additional data and to gain input on the time potentially needed for food manufacturers to reformulate products that currently contain artificial trans fat should this determination be finalized,” the agency said.
Hamburg called Thursday’s move “an important step toward protecting more Americans from the potential dangers of trans fat.”
The American Heart Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest were among those praising the move.
“The scientific evidence is clear — eating food with trans fat increases production of ‘bad’ cholesterol, which is a risk factor for heart disease,” the AHA said.
So what should consumers do in the meantime? Choose products that have the lowest combined amount of saturated fat, cholesterol and trans fat, the FDA said.
Under current regulations, companies can claim their food has 0 grams of trans fat if the food contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, according to Mical Honigfort, a consumer safety officer at FDA. But if partially hydrogenated oil is listed in the ingredients, there may still be a small amount of trans fat present.
Nancy Brown, the Heart Association’s CEO, said she hopes the FDA goes a step further and revises labels for foods that are trans fat free.
The preliminary determination was based on “available scientific evidence and the findings of expert scientific panels,” the FDA said.
The determination covers only partially hydrogenated oils, not trans fat that naturally occurs in some meat and dairy products. Trans fat is also present at very low levels in other edible oils, such as fully hydrogenated oils, where it is “unavoidably produced during the manufacturing process,” according to the FDA.
Avoiding foods containing artificially produced trans fat could prevent 10,000 to 20,000 heart attacks and 3,000 to 7,000 coronary heart disease deaths each year, according to one study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Artificial trans fat is a uniquely powerful promoter of heart disease, and today’s announcement will hasten its eventual disappearance from the food supply,” said Michael Jacobson, the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s executive director. “Not only is artificial trans fat not safe, it’s not remotely necessary. Many companies, large and small, have switched to healthier oils over the past decade. I hope that those restaurants and food manufacturers that still use this harmful ingredient see the writing on the wall and promptly replace it.”
CNN’s Saundra Young and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
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