Economic Impacts of Proposed Limits on Trans Fats in Canada

In response to growing concerns about coronary heart disease (CHD), the Government of Canada has recently taken policy measures to reduce Canadian trans fatty acid (TFA) consumption. The mandatory labelling of trans fat content in foods began in December 2005. The House of Commons also established a task force in November 2004 to develop a set of regulations to ban the sale of food products with a TFA content greater than 2 percent. The issue at stake is whether the mandatory content restriction has economic merit. While the mandatory TFA reductions could reduce heart disease and improve the health of Canadians, they also have the potential to increase economic costs faced by all aspects of the Canadian food oil complex, from primary producers to consumers. The goal of this article is to examine the impacts of a mandatory reduction of trans fat content by estimating the potential health benefits and potential adverse impacts on the agri-food sector