Eliminating trans fat from the global food supply
A trans fat-free world is now within reach.
Challenge
Artificial trans fat in our food increases the risk of heart attack and stroke and kills more than 500,000 people a year.
Solution
We partnered with WHO to co-create the REPLACE initiative, calling on countries to ban trans fat and providing step-by-step guidance on how to do it.
Impact
Since REPLACE launched in 2018, 54 countries have banned trans fat protecting nearly 4 billion people from this deadly toxin and advancing heart health worldwide.
What is trans fat elimination?
Trans fat is a harmful compound added to food to improve shelf-life—you may not know it’s there, but eating it increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, and premature death. As recently as 2018, trans fat contributed to as many as 500,000 deaths every year.
But no one needs to eat trans fat. It can be replaced with healthier alternatives and kept out of food supplies using mandatory, best-practice policies.
How trans fat elimination works
To protect heart health and save lives on a national scale, countries can adopt best-practice policies that remove trans fat from the food supply and keep it out.
Mandatory bans ensure food manufacturers replace trans fat with healthier oils, removing this added toxin from the source without changing taste or cost to consumers.
Countries that have eliminated trans fat prove it’s possible.
Image: include bar graph of countries from current TFA page.
How RTSL supports trans fat elimination
Practical tools for a global challenge
Since 2018, we’ve partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) on REPLACE, an initiative to eliminate artificial trans fat from the global food supply. We helped develop the REPLACE action package, a step-by-step guide that provides governments all the tools they need to eliminate trans fat in their country and guides manufacturers on making the switch to healthier fats.
At the end of 2025, just over half the world’s population—4.1 billion people—lived in countries with best practice trans fat elimination policies, a huge jump from just 6% when REPLACE was launched.
Highlights
5-year progress report on global trans fat elimination
Results from the first five years of WHO’s REPLACE initiative.
Maximizing lives saved through policy implementation and enforcement
Taking a best practice trans fat policy from paper to practice
Preparing for policy in action: Nigeria builds capacity to eliminate trans fat and protect heart health
How Nigeria became second African country to ban trans fat.
Trans fat elimination communications toolkit
Tools to support for communications and advocacy activities including social media resources and customizable templates.
How RTSL supports trans fat elimination
Practical tools for a global challenge
Since 2018, we’ve partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) on REPLACE, an initiative to eliminate artificial trans fat from the global food supply. We helped develop the REPLACE action package, a step-by-step guide that provides governments all the tools they need to eliminate trans fat in their country and guides manufacturers on making the switch to healthier fats.
At the end of 2025, just over half the world’s population—4.1 billion people—lived in countries with best practice trans fat elimination policies, a huge jump from just 6% when REPLACE was launched.
Supporting the policy process
At the national level, we work with governments and advocates to pass policies that work.
When trans fat elimination is not on the health agenda, we work to change that. In collaboration with our partners, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator and the NCD Alliance, we support local civil society organizations to make the case for trans fat elimination to decision makers and the public. We also support research on trans fat levels in food and advocacy campaigns on the dangers of trans fat.
From policy to practice
Policy passage is just the beginning. Keeping trans fat out of the food supply requires enforcement. We’re working with WHO to build lab capacity to test for trans fat across multiple regions, and supporting improved food control systems—making it easier for countries to monitor compliance.
WHO also awards validation certificates to countries whose best practice trans fat elimination policies are supported by adequate monitoring and enforcement systems, and the number of success stories from around the world is growing.
