Health: FDA Orders Food Manufacturers To Remove Trans-Fat Within 3 Years

By Stephanie Stahl

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Trans fat is on the government's hit list. The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday the heart clogging fats will be eliminated from the food supply.

The consumption of trans-fats has significantly decreased, down some 80 percent. It's slowly been lowered or removed from many items. But it's still out there and even small amounts can pose big heart problems. So over the next three years they'll be phased out.

Many junk food items, like chips, contain trans-fat; so does some margarine, ready to use frosting, popcorn and coffee creamer.

Trans-fat, created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil, is used to improve shelf life and flavor, but it can increase the risk of coronary disease and heart attacks.

"What we are really talking about is foods that are processed. Things like boxed cookies, boxed crackers, pies. Things like french fries," explains Amy Jamieson-Petonic, a Registered Dietician.

The Food and Drug Administration is giving food manufacturers three years to remove partially hydrogenated oils the major source of trans fats from their products.

In the past few years levels of trans fats have been lowered, but the FDA says even those small amounts can add up.

Jamieson-Petonic says, "If they were eating more than one serving of that they could really consume a high level of trans-fat from that food and not even be aware of it."

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the main trade group for the food industry, is working on a petition to ask the FDA for certain exceptions that's the only way trans-fat would be allowed to be left in some food.