The Washington Post is reporting that US Department of Health and Human Services has announced that starting January 1, 2006 all food labels must contain listings for trans-fatty acids.

This is considered a success for the heart-conscious, as trans-fats are believed to be a significant contributor to to obesity, heart disease, and other significant health problems.

Already a number of companies have responded to the concern by announcing that they are re-tooling their foods to reduce the amount of trans-fats (McDonalds has announced they will be removing them altogether from french fries, Kraft is working on revising its snack foods, such as Oreo's). Yet others, like Frito-Lay have already started listing trans-fats on their labels.