He won a contract from the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps to investigate methods of preventing frozen turkeys and chickens from tasting rancid.
His research, funded by National Institutes of Health grants, focused on heart disease, until shortly before his death.
As a researcher during the Cold War, Kummerow traveled widely in Soviet bloc countries to speak with scientists, reporting back to the State Department on what he had learned.
The article, which appeared in Science, was not met with widespread acceptance initially and even received scornful disdain from some associated with the food industry.
As further studies confirmed the trans fat-heart disease link, the Center for Science in the Public Interest filed 1994 petition with FDA to require that the trans-fats substance be listed on nutrition facts labels (the petition was ultimately granted 12 years later),[8] and the American Heart Association began to warn about the health risks of trans fats in 2004.
[2] Food companies also began voluntarily to remove trans fats from their products amid growing scientific and consumer pressure.
[8] In 2009, at the age of 94, Kummerow filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a federal ban on artificial trans fats.
"[8] Kummerow 's petition stated that "Artificial trans fat is a poisonous and deleterious substance, and the FDA has acknowledged the danger.
"[9] Three months after the suit was filed,[8] on June 16, 2015, the FDA moved to eliminate artificial trans fats from the U.S. food supply, giving manufacturers a deadline of three years.