WHO honors Saudi Arabia’s SFDA for Trans Fat-free products
Saudi Arabia honored for Trans Fat-Free products : Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) gets a certificate as a reward from the World Health Organization (WHO) as recognition of food items in the Kingdom do not contain any Industrially produced Trans-Fatty Acids (ITFA) or artificial trans fats. Join Saudi Expatriates channel on Telegram
In this regard, Saudi Arabia is one of the top five countries in the world. While the other four are Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, and Thailand. WHO praised these countries for taking great steps to get rid of ITFA.
– During the honoring ceremony held in Geneva on Monday, Dr. Hisham Aljadhey, CEO of SFDA, praised the WHO’s work to improve public health and set goals that will help lower the number of people who get chronic diseases.
– As part of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Health Sector Transformation Program, which aimed to create a healthy food and nutrition plan, Saudi Arabia was able to do this.
– The SFDA created a comprehensive strategy for healthy food and nutrition in the year 2017. Its main goals were to improve people’s eating habits and make food products healthier, according to Aljadhey.
– As part of this strategy, rules were put in place to lower the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in food products. Also, food businesses had to tell customers how many calories their products had. Most Viewed : Ramadan 2024 in Saudi Arabia
– The SFDA has been able to keep partly hydrogenated oils, which are the main source of trans fats, out of the country’s food supply since January 2020.
– In order to improve nutrition and get people to choose healthier foods, the head of the SFDA stressed that Saudi Arabia wanted to create and implement a system of policies and programs that worked together.
– This would involve people from both the public and private sectors. He said, “The consumption of artificial trans fats is thought to cause about 500,000 deaths a year around the world, and it is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases.”
– Aljadhey said that the SFDA has been required and encouraged to limit the intake of trans-fatty acids since the year 2015. It set a maximum level of 2% for them in oil and ghee products and 5% for them in other food products. This will stop the use of partially hydrogenated oils in the year 2020, which are the main source of these fats. Recommend : Saudi Arabia allows performing Nikah in Makkah Grand Mosque and Prophet’s Mosque in Madina
– Among other things, he said that this helped improve people’s health, lower the cost of diseases caused by saturated fats, and market Saudi goods around the world. In terms of science, the head of the SFDA said that the agency’s labs have been set up to make sure that food items do not include any artificial trans fats.
– Saudi Arabia has been named president of the International Advisory Team for the Elimination of Artificial Trans Fats because of how well it has followed the rules and methods to get rid of artificial trans fats.
– The team’s leader is Faisal bin Sunaid, who is in charge of the Healthy Food Department at SFDA. The team’s job is to look over requests from member states to get a certificate of recognition from the organization. See Also : Saudi Arabia’s cinema ticket sales in two years
