Written question asked by Countess of Mar (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Darzi of Denham (Labour) on Monday, 1 June 2009.

Health: Dietary Guidelines

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government in the light of their dietary recommendations for reductions in consumption of saturated fats and hydrogenated (trans-) fats, what advice they offer to consumers regarding the replacement of butter and margarine.

Answer: The Food Standards Agency's (FSA) saturated fat campaign encourages consumers to reduce their intake of saturated fat, as a means to improve their cardiovascular health. The FSA advises that people replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats—an example of this is to replace butter with margarine in the diet. Most margarine products contain low levels of trans fats (less than 1 per cent), which like saturated fat is associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk, the current United Kingdom population trans fat intakes are about half the maximum recommended level of 2 per cent of food energy, as recommended by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA, 1994) and endorsed by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN, 2007). Government will continue to monitor saturated fat and trans fat intakes in the population.

Secondary information