TFX (The Campaign Against Trans Fats in Food)

Trans fats are stealth killers lurking in our food, causing the early deaths of many thousands of people a year in the UK. They are mainly found in hydrogenated vegetable oil and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, common ingredients in thousands of food products.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, at least 30,000 people, and probably more like 100,000 people a year in the USA die prematurely from coronary heart disease as a result of eating trans fats. If Britons are dying in similar proportions to population, some 5,000 - 20,000 people could be dying prematurely every year in the UK, or 15 - 60 people every day.

The aims of TFX.org.uk are:

• to persuade Government to place an upper limit on trans fats both in food, and in oils and fats used in the preparation of food, as has already taken place in Denmark
• leading up to a ban, to persuade Government regulators to make labelling of trans fats compulsory, in much the same way as saturated fat and total fat content already are stated on nutrition labels (as will be legally required in the USA from 1 January 2006)
• to persuade the food industry to voluntarily reduce levels of trans fats in their products, or eliminate them altogether
• to persuade the food industry to voluntarily label trans fats in products, as detailed above.