The food industry has got three years as per a directive from the Food and Drug Administration to remove artery-clogging artificial trans fats from food supply. The move has come after years of efforts being made by consumer groups to eliminate trans fats from the food supply in a bid to save thousands of lives each year.

Trans fats are blamed for significantly contributing to heart diseases in the United States. Although amounts of trans fats have been largely reduced in food, they still are present in many popular products, including frostings, microwave popcorn, packages pies, frozen pizzas, margarines and coffee creamers.

The plans to act were promised by the agency in 2013. The final decision was taken on Tuesday to effectively remove industrial trans fats from the American diet by 2018. As per estimates of the agency, the change could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths attributable to heart disease each year.

The food industry has got some respite from the decision as it still has three years to completely remove trans fats from foods. The industry is looking forward to convince the agency that there is no health risk from eating some food items with little trans fats.

“This is the final nail in the coffin of trans fats. In terms of lives saved, I think eliminating trans fats is the single most important change to our food supply”, said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group that pushed for the ban.