Brazil
There are no mandatory limits on trans fats in Brazil but manufacturers are required to list trans fat content on ingredient lists.
However, if a product contains 0.2 grams per serving of food or less, they can write 0 g in the nutrition table and claim the product is trans fat-free, something consumer rights organization IDEC is campaigning to end.
IDEC also says Brazilian consumers are being misled by the different names given to ingredients containing industrial trans fats, such as hydrogenated vegetable fat, partially hydrogenated fat, hydrogenated vegetable oil, or simply hydrogenated (‘hidrogenado’).
Brazil’s health and food safety authority ANVISA held a technical meeting on trans fats in December last year and is planning to launch a public consultation on the topic in 2019.
Patrícia Gentil, IDEC nutritionist who attended the multi-stakeholder technical meeting in December, said: "The only measure Brazil has to restrict trans fat consumption is mandatory nutrition labeling, but this is not enough to protect the population.
“Every country that has reduced consumption have done so by [taking] measures that restrict the use of industrial trans fat.”
Photo: A typical Brazilian breakfast of cheese bread. © GettyImages/ribeirorocha