Technical Advisory Group on Trans Fat Elimination and Validation: virtual meetings report, June-October 2023

Overview

The WHO Validation Programme for Trans Fat Elimination was established to recognize countries for having a normative framework in place to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fatty acids (TFA) from national food supplies by granting them a WHO Validation certificate of Trans Fat Elimination. Against this background, in 2023 WHO established the Trans Fat Elimination Technical Advisory Group (TFATAG) with a view to ensuring independence, scientific rigour and transparency in making judgements about the granting of the WHO Validation certificate. The first application was opened to countries in April 2023. Applications were submitted by 14 countries. Based on the evaluation of the country applications, the TFATAG recommended that WHO Validation certificates of Trans Fat Elimination be granted to Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. This document explains the process used for the evaluation of the country applications and briefly summarizes the results of the evaluations by the TFATAG of the country applications.