On Tuesday the Food Standards Agency published its saturated fat and energy strategy - weeks later than originally planned.

It was delayed by a snap request last October from health secretary Alan Johnson for an inquiry by the FSA into whether it was necessary to legislate against trans fats.

It wasn't, of course, because the industry has all but removed them voluntarily. On 13 December the FSA board decided, on this basis, to recommend to Johnson that nothing happen.

On 10 January, the secretary of state finally wrote to FSA chair Dame Deirdre Hutton to say he concurred.

"I agree a shift of focus towards reducing saturated fat in the diet is likely to have a significant impact on the health of the population," he said in the letter, published on the FSA website this week.

A shift of focus? It was only Johnson's misguided belief that trans fats were a problem that resulted in a focus on them at all - something described in these pages as "completely bizarre".

In fact, the FSA had already decided that saturated fat was a higher priority than trans fats - a point made in the draft version of its saturated fat and energy strategy, published last March.

Johnson's untimely intervention simply meant extra work for the FSA - and also meant the agency had to wait for his decision on the matter before publishing its strategy.

Ultimately, Johnson's decision is a victory for the food industry and for those who believe self-regulation is better than legislation. So why didn't the Department of Health or the FSA make more of it by issuing a press release? Was it to spare the minister's blushes over a naive, whimsical act he'd rather we all forgot about?