A Indonesian Advisory Group on Fatty Acid Nutrition and Health was established in 2004 to consider the increasing incidence of nutritionally-related cardiovascular disease in Indonesia. Emerging international recommendations, often focused on dietary fat and may not have been relevant to the national situation. Traditional dietary patterns were apparently protective against ischaemic heart disease often with fat derived dominantly from a particular source like coconut, soy, peanut or fish. These fats were used in ways which promoted the use of potentially cardioprotective foods like legumes, vegetables, fruits and aquatic food. Optimal intakes of polyunsaturated fatty acids in Indonesia are likely to reflect both absolute intakes and the relationships between n-3 and n-6 fatty acids of longer chain lengths. This leaves some issues for active and continuing review, like the intakes of trans fatty acids, and the regulatory and food labelling implications. Some studies underway and others which need implementation will enable the Advisory Group to prepare a second report with more basis in Indonesian evidence. In the meantime, the Advisory Group has recommended that the AHA (American Heart Association) and ISSFAL (International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids) recommendations obtain until the end of 2007.