Op-ed: Eliminate trans fat for a healthier, more productive Indonesia

Industrially produced trans fat kills more than 278 000 people globally every year, including an estimated 5000 people in Indonesia, mostly from heart attack and stroke. 

Harmful even in small amounts, industrially produced trans fat is commonly found in snack foods, baked goods, cooking oils and street foods such as martabak and roti maryam, even though it can be eliminated without changing the cost, taste or availability of food.

In May of this year, WHO, in collaboration with the South-East Asia Food and Agriculture Science and Technology Center at IPB University, Bogor, released groundbreaking data on trans fat content in Indonesia’s food supply, with the aim of supporting decisive regulatory action. The findings show that almost 10% of foods tested exceeded the WHO-recommended threshold for trans fat, which for baked food products rose to an alarming 25%.

The good news? By adopting one of two WHO best-practice policies – either reducing trans fat to 2% of total fat content in all foods, or banning the production, import, sale and use of partially hydrogenated oil in all foods – Indonesia can achieve rapid, far-reaching change.

First, it would dramatically reduce trans fat-associated morbidity and mortality, a tragedy with vast socio-economic impact that increases health care costs and reduces workforce participation and productivity. In the near-term, this would mean more health financing for more health priorities, and would accelerate overall social and economic development.

A 2015 cost-benefit analysis by the US Department of Health and Human Services projected a US$ 130 billion net benefit in the US from lives saved and non-fatal illnesses prevented by removing toxic trans fat over a 20-year time period. Additional studies from Kenya, Nigeria, the UK, Argentina and the EU have also shown that trans fat regulations save lives and are cost-saving to governments in the long-term.

Second, it would prevent a looming – and completely avoidable – health crisis. To date, 53 countries globally have adopted best-practice trans fat elimination policies, covering 3.7 billion people. 

In the past four years, Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria and Argentina have led the way, joining several of Indonesia’s neighbours, including Thailand and Singapore.

This leaves Indonesia – the world’s fourth most populous country – uniquely vulnerable to becoming a dumping ground for trans fat-rich food products, imperiling not just the health of individuals but the country’s ambitious health and development agenda.

Tides are shifting, opportunities opening. With the passage last year of Indonesia’s new Omnibus Health Law, legislators took a bold and much-needed step to actively address major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The challenge now is to ensure that implementing legislation – currently being developed – includes specific measures to tackle unhealthy diets and achieve a healthier food environment.

Moreover, with the deadline of the country’s long-term plan for national development 2005–2025 fast approaching – and the next plan finalized and set to be applied – policy makers increasingly recognize the need to rapidly expand preventive and promotive health measures, including for NCDs, not just in health systems but in people’s everyday lives. 

And with the forward-thinking focus of Indonesia’s national health transformation agenda, launched in 2022, the case for optimism becomes stronger still. The agenda specifically highlights the need for comprehensive health action to better prevent and control NCDs, the country’s number one cause of premature mortality.

Today, Indonesia has every chance to help eliminate trans fat globally by 2025, which WHO will continue to support all countries to achieve.

What is needed now is strong national commitment backed by rapid regulatory action to eliminate trans fat once and for all. Together we can; together we must.