Five countries have been awarded for their efforts towards eliminating mass-produced trans fats in food, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday.

Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand have received the first-ever WHO certificates for demonstrating that they have a best practice policy for industrially produced trans-fatty acids (iTFA) elimination in effect, supported by adequate monitoring and enforcement systems.

Trans fats are industrially produced or naturally occurring, and both are linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and heart disease.

They have “no known health benefit, but huge health risks,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Furthermore, the fried foods, cakes and ready meals where they can be found lurking are often high in sugar, fat and salt.

WHO had set an ambitious target in 2018 to fully eliminate iTFA from the global food supply by the end of 2023.  Although it was not met, the UN agency said remarkable progress towards this goal has been made in every region of the world.

A grand total of 53 countries now have “best practice” policies in place to tackle mass-produced trans fats in food. This covers 3.7 billion people, 46 per cent of the global population, up from just six per cent only five years ago.