DEADLY artificial fats found in hundreds of foods are set to be made illegal under a government plan aimed at saving thousands of lives each year in the UK.

Man-made "trans fats" found in many products, including cakes, biscuits and pizzas, will have to be removed by food manufacturers if the legal ban under consideration goes ahead.

British food firms are only likely to avoid a legal ban if they make a rapid and concerted attempt to drastically reduce trans fat levels or remove them altogether.

Campaigners claim trans fats cause 10,000 premature deaths from heart attacks annually in Britain, three times the number killed on roads. Trans fats are potentially deadly because the body cannot break them down in the same way it deals with natural fat.

The move toward legal regulation of the substances is a significant development, as the government has previously allowed the food industry to regulate itself. A number of firms have reduced the amount of trans fats in their products, but some of the most popular products on supermarket shelves still contain significant quantities of the "silent killer".

Trans fats are created as a result of treating vegetable oil to make it last longer. The natural oil is heated and then hydrogen gas bubbled in, creating a solid. The resulting hydrogenated fat is a cheap and convenient ingredient in many foods.

But trans fats raise cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease. They have also been linked with critical health complaints including obesity, cancers, diabetes and allergies.

But despite the mounting concern, manufacturers in the UK are not obliged to disclose on ingredients labels that their products contain trans fats.

The US Food and Drug Administration decided last year that trans fats must be listed on all packaged foods. The growing campaign against their risks gathered pace last autumn, when New York announced that it would ban trans fats from the city's restaurants from July this year. Canada and Chicago are considering similar bans.

The crackdown has had a dramatic knock-on impact on the nation's biggest food companies. Fast-food chains such as Wendy's, KFC and Red Lobster have pledged to eliminate trans fats nationwide, while McDonald's is ploughing millions of dollars into finding an acceptable alternative. Starbucks is to ban trans fats at its coffee-houses in 10 cities - including Chicago and New York.

The most dramatic impact has been seen in Denmark, which became the first country to effectively ban trans fats in restaurants and packaged foods, by stipulating that oils could contain no more than 2% of them.

Steen Stender, a cardiologist at Gentofte University Hospital in Copenhagen, said the country has seen a 20% fall in deaths from heart disease since the ban. "In Denmark nobody can tell a difference in taste, even with what you call the Danish pastry," he said. "We have managed to do it without resorting back to saturated fats."

Britain's obesity strategy has previously targeted work at reducing the average intake of saturated fat from the current level of 13.4% to below 11% of food energy by 2010.

Roberto Bocchetti is a qualified Personal Trainer and Massage Therapist, with more than 10 years experience. He provides One-on-One Personal Training in Paris Gym Vauxhall and also offers a mobile personal training service, going to clients in the privacy of their homes.  

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