COUNTDOWN TO 2023: WHO REPORT ON GLOBAL TRANS FAT ELIMINATION 2019

Overview

In 2018, TFA elimination was identified as one of the priority targets in the World Health Organization (WHO) 13th General Programme of Work, which guides the five-year work of WHO in 2019–2023. Also in 2018, the REPLACE action package was launched to help countries eliminate industrially produced TFA from their food supplies. WHO released additional resources in 2019 to support country actions, including six implementation modules and a live policy tracking map – the TFA Country Score Card – to monitor global progress towards the 2023 target. In 2020, WHO established a TFA indicator that records whether countries have adopted WHO best-practice policies for eliminating industrially produced TFA (WHO, 2020a).

This progress report, the second since the 2018 launch of the REPLACE action package, aims to track and accelerate progress towards the goal of global elimination by 2023. The report:

• Describes the current global, regional and national situations and changes during the past year (since May 2019);
• Tracks progress of key policy outcomes and milestones;
• Discusses challenges and opportunities for future action;
• Highlights enablers and blockers of TFA elimination at the country level; and
• Recommends strategic priorities for the next 12 months to achieve the 2023 target.

In addition, this report highlights countries in each WHO region that have made significant policy advances in the past year.