California Bans Trans Fats in Restaurants!
Schwarzenegger cites health risk in banishing the artery-clogger.
California, a national trendsetter in all matters edible, became the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Friday to phase out their use in the next few years.
Under the new law, the fats must be excised from restaurant products beginning in 2010, and from all retail baked goods by 2011. Packaged manufactured foods will be exempt.
New York City passed a regulation banning the fats in 2006, which became fully effective July 1, and Philadelphia, Stamford, Conn., and Montgomery County, Md., have approved similar laws. But placing a mandatory ban on the roughly 88,000 restaurants, bakeries and other food purveyors in the nation's most populous state provides a major legislative boost for the movement against trans fats.
The effort has been led by scientists, doctors and consumer advocates who trace the largely-synthetic fats to a host of health woes, principally heart disease.
"I think the potential here is real for a far greater understanding of the harms of trans fats," said Dr. Clyde Yancy, the incoming president of the American Heart Association. "And to encourage more states to do the same."
Trans fats are created by pumping hydrogen into liquid oil at high temperature, a process called partial hydrogenation. The process results in an inexpensive fat that prolongs the shelf-life and appearance of packaged foods, but scientific studies have repeatedly found trans fats to increase bad cholesterol, which can lead to diabetes and heart disease, California's leading cause of death.
Yancy said that a 2 percent increase in trans fat intake can result in a 25 percent increase in the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease.
"These are data we are just now beginning to understand," he said. "It is pretty clear now that it was a mistake for us to embrace these fats." Under the new California law, restaurants, bakeries, delicatessens, cafeterias and other businesses classified as "food facilities" will have to discontinue the use of oils, margarine and shortening containing trans fats in preparing all their foods.
These purveyors will have to keep the labels on their cooking products so that they can be inspected for trans fat, a process that will become part of the duties of local health inspectors. Violators will face fines beginning at $25, and increasing as high as $1,000 for multiple violations.
The bill was written by Democratic Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, a former 4th grade teacher who said he was inspired by the number of obese children he saw in school. "They are heavy," Mendoza said. "They eat out a lot and you realize there are trans fats out there - you don't want kids to start off on the wrong foot."
Opposition to the law came largely from the California Restaurant Association, which argued that singling out trans fats as a singularly harmful food product was arbitrary, and that a mandate would be expensive to implement. Further, the restaurant association asserted that such a ban for health reasons was the purview of the federal government, not the states.
"We don't doubt the health findings surrounding trans fats," said Lara Dunbar, senior vice president of government affairs for the association. "Our opposition was philosophical. Banning one product isn't necessarily the right solution."
Further, Dunbar said, many of the state's restaurants have eliminated trans fats already. "We don't think you need a mandate," she said. "Restaurants responded to a consumer demand."
Among national chains, Wendy's, KFC, Taco Bell, the Cheesecake Factory and McDonald's have all begun to move away from trans fats because of consumer concerns.
In many high-end restaurants in California - where the organic foods movement began and where many a food trend has been born - chefs would no more use trans fats in their cooking than use paper tablecloths in their dining rooms.
For some restaurateurs, however, the change has been costly, they say, because there are fewer distributors of the alternative oils. "The only effect it is going to have on the consumer is that we are going to have to raise our prices," said Tina Pantazis, the manager of Dino's Burgers, which operators two hamburger restaurants, one in Los Angeles and other in Azusa. Pantazis said that the restaurant's french fries, which now cost $1.75 per order, probably will be bumped up to at least $2.75.
The Los Angeles branch of Dino's has already moved to the new oils, she said, adding there were no customer complaints even though she could taste the difference. The Azusa branch will switch soon.
"I think this is good for the health of the consumer," Pantazis said. "On the other hand, people who eat french fries are not concerned with their health that much."
By Jennifer Steinhauer
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday, July 26, 2008
SOURCE: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/07/26/0726transfat.html