THE food industry faces a government inquiry into its role in Britain’s surging obesity and heart disease rates with ministers considering a ban on trans fats as the first decisive step.

Trans fats, which are entirely artificial, have been shown to raise the risk of heart disease and might also have important roles in obesity and diabetes.

The inquiry, ordered by Alan Johnson, the health secretary, follows a series of warnings from successive health ministers that the food industry needed to improve the healthiness of its products - most of which have been ignored.

Johnson said: “We know we must act. We cannot afford not to act. For the first time we are clear about the magnitude of the problem: we are facing a potential crisis on the scale of climate change and it is in everybody’s interest to turn things around.”

The proposed ban on trans fats is being seen as a warning shot to the food industry as well as an important measure in its own right.

Trans fats are used widely by the food industry because they are up to 85% cheaper than natural fats such as butter, lard and palm oil. But researchers have repeatedly warned that they act as long-term toxins and have no benefit for consumers.

A recent report from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which will carry out the new inquiry, said: “The trans fats found in food containing hydrogenated vegetable oil are harmful and have no known nutritional benefits. They raise the type of cholesterol in the blood that increases the risk of coronary heart disease. Some evidence suggests that the effects of these trans fats may be worse than saturated fats.”

However, even though such dangers have been known for nearly two decades, there is no obligation for food manufacturers to display the amount of trans fats on product labels.

Johnson’s decision to hold an inquiry follows cabinet discussions in which Gordon Brown made it clear that preventive healthcare was one of his top priorities.

“There is high-level commitment across government,” Johnson said. “We will provide the leadership, vision and sustained commitment required to help to start this cultural and societal shift.”

His move follows surveys looking at the rising proportion of the population who are overweight. They show that the British tip the scales as Europe’s fattest people, with 60% of adults and 30% of children overweight, defined as more than 25% of their body mass comprising fat tissue.

Of these, 20% were obese, meaning their bodies were at least 30% fat. That proportion could reach 40% by 2025.

Such changes could, ministers have been warned, threaten the viability of the National Health Service. It already spends between 10% and 20% of its hospital budget on obesity-related diseases such as diabetes.

Johnson’s decision could mark a sea change in the government’s dealings with the food industry. Until now ministers had accepted manufacturers’ claims that the best approach was to educate consumers about sensible eating and let them make their own choices.

Johnson seems to be moving towards the views put forward by health campaigners who say the government must take more responsibility for the nation’s deteriorating dietary health. They say few people have the time or ability to read complex food labels and design healthy diets and that many such labels are misleading.

Similar changes are already afoot in America where New York last year banned the use of trans fats in city restaurants and the government compelled manufacturers to list trans fat contents on food labels.

The British inquiry will consider further action on food advertising. There is already a ban on advertising foods such as crisps and chocolate during children’s television programmes. This could be extended to commercial breaks in adult programmes such as The X Factor and Big Brother, which attract many younger viewers.

The Food and Drink Federation, which represents Britain’s food manufacturers, accepted that Britons were eating too much saturated fat, but said the government should focus on people with the highest levels of fat intake rather than on regulating the industry.

Johnson points out that the problem cannot be solved by government action alone. “There is no single solution for obesity,” he said. “We will succeed only if the problem is recognised, owned and addressed at every level of society.” His cabinet colleague Ed Balls, the schools secretary, will tomorrow announce measures to increase the amount of sport played by school pupils. Only 50% of schoolchildren do two hours or more of physical exercise or sport every week, well below targets set in 2004.

Hidden threat

- Trans fats, or trans isomer fatty acids, are created by “hydrogenation” of vegetable oil: it is heated and then has hydrogen bubbled through it

- Trans fats have been increasing in western diets since they were first marketed in America in 1911 by Procter & Gamble

- The process transforms oils into a wax or solid that can be used to give texture to food and help preserve it for artificially long periods. In America, cupcakes made with trans fats have stayed fresh for 22 years

- Their cheapness - less than a fifth the cost of natural fats - means most manufacturers prefer them to butter, lard or traditional oils

- They are widely used in “healthy” substitutes for butter, as well as in pastries, cakes, breakfast cereals, snack bars, pizzas, doughnuts, processed cream and ice cream, and especially in deep-fried food

- A 2006 review in The New England Journal of Medicine found “a strong and reliable connection” between trans fats and heart disease. A study of 120,000 NHS nurses found the risk of heart disease doubled for every 2% rise in trans fat intake. It took a 19% rise in natural fat intake to cause a similar increase in risk

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