The fast food chain KFC is cutting potentially harmful trans fats from products sold in Ireland and Britain.
The company said yesterday that it would be phasing in a "low trans" blend of cooking oil at its outlets from next month.
It is the latest firm to respond to concerns over links between trans fats, increased cholesterol levels and coronary heart disease.
Marks & Spencer, for example, says that it has already removed trans fats from its pre-cooked meals and Kelloggs says it has eliminated trans fats from its products.
For the moment, however, consumers will have to take companies at their word when they say that they have removed trans fats from their products as there is no mandatory requirement in European legislation to label trans fats. Such a requirement is in place in the US.
Dr Wayne Anderson, chief specialist in food science with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said the only indication to a consumer as to whether trans fats were present in a product was if they saw a reference to "partially-hydrogenated" oil or "hydrogenated" oil in the ingredients.
A study had just been completed by his organisation on the amount of trans fats in packaged goods sold in the Republic. The data was being analysed and would be published before the end of the year, he said.
The FSAI is also considering doing a similar study of non-packaged foodstuffs such as fast food, Dr Anderson added.
"It will be interesting to see how much trans fats are in Irish foodstuffs and, secondly, discussion is ongoing in the EU at the moment on changing labelling legislation," he said.
"One of the discussions under way is whether trans fats should be included in the nutritional labelling on food packages. Part of the reason we are doing our study is to send it to the European Commission to inform the discussion on whether trans fats should be labelled or not."
Dr Anderson said that people should minimise their intake of trans fats because they have a bad effect on cholesterol levels. We should also minimise our intake of saturated fats, he advised.
Trans fats, or trans fatty acids, come from adding hydrogen molecules to vegetable oil through a process called hydrogenation. The extra hydrogen makes the oil more solid, and therefore more hardy and likely to preserve.
This toughening texture also makes the food appear less greasy and therefore, ironically, gives the food a healthier look.
KFC said that the oil it will now use is made mainly from sunflower and rapeseed and will contain less than 1 per cent trans fat.
Paul Kelly, director of Food and Drink Industry Ireland, said that the industry was aware of its responsibility in this area.
"We are committed to reducing the levels of trans fatty acids and, where technically possible, eliminating them. This course of action has been in place for several years and industry efforts have been acknowledged by the European Food Safety Authority as a reason for a decline in the consumption of trans fatty acids across Europe," Mr Kelly said.