The NAS Letter Report underscores the relationship between the intake of trans fat and the increased risk for heart disease and emphasizes that consumers need to limit trans fat in their diets. FDA recognizes that to accomplish this, information on the trans fat content of foods needs to be available on food labels. But the NAS report did not provide a Daily Reference Intake value for trans fat that would be needed to assist the agency in providing other information on the label, such as a Daily Value for trans fat. Therefore, FDA intends to scale back its proposal and take a more incremental approach to provide for trans fat labeling that is consistent with the available science. For consumers to now have information that follows the Academy's recommendations, FDA will publish a final rule requiring the mandatory declaration of trans fat content within the Nutrition Facts panel. However, similar to declarations for mono- and polyunsaturated fats, no % Daily Value will be listed on the label. The agency hopes to publish the final rule early in 2003.
This document was issued in July 2002
For more recent information on Food Labeling
See http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/label.html
Letter Report on Dietary Reference Intakes for Trans Fatty Acids; Institute of Medicine in the National Academy of Sciences, July 10, 2002 (available in PDF)