Health professionals across the UK have urged the government to ban ''deadly'' trans fats to cut around 7,000 deaths per year.

Trans-fats, found in many junk foods such as cakes and pies, are chemically altered oils which increase the shelf life of foods. Trans-fats have no nutritional value and can dramatically raise cholesterol levels, thus the likelihood of heart disease.

A recent study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported that just a 1 per cent decrease in trans-fat, could save thousands of lives each year. According to The Mirror, Harvard medical school experts agree, saying that around 11,000 of deaths per annum could be prevented by people eating less trans-fats.

In recent months, the UK Faculty of Public Health urged the government to practically ban the usage of trans-fats, commenting in the BBC that despite annual consumption comprising of just 1 per cent of the UK's food intake, there are groups that consume more than this figure, putting them dangerously at risk of heart attacks, strokes and other obesity related illness.

Countries such as the US and Denmark have almost eradicated the use of trans-fats, without compromising on the taste or affordability of food products, so it is argued that by those in health positions such as dietitian jobs, that the UK should follow suit.

President of the UK Faculty of Public Health, Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, was cited in the BBC as saying of the BMJ report: ''There are great differences in the amount of trans-fats consumed by different people and we are particularly concerned about young people and those with little disposable income who eat a lot of this type of food.''

Professor Maryon-Davis continued saying that the issue was one of a ''major health inequality.''