Trans Fats Banned Throughout California
California achieved another first recently: they became the first state to ban the use of trans fats in restaurant foods. State restaurants have got a year and a half, to Jan.1, 2010, to find alternate sources for shortenings, margarines, or frying media that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Ironically, donut makers were given an extra year to come up with an alternative.
New York City and other municipalities have already had the ban in place but California’s ban is of course, state wide.
The ban was vigorously opposed by the California Restaurant Association. Their contention was that this was a matter for the FDA and not individual states.
The bottom line is this: any chef with a little talent and creativity can get around not using trans fats. For more restaurants, it simply comes down to a cost issue: and those artery-clogging partially hydrogenated oils are cheaper.
Chef Louie Ciola of Ciola’s in Lakeway was more succinct in his reaction to the new California law: “we don’t use any trans fats at Ciola’s. Period.” And a random sampling of chefs on our top 20 restaurant list echoed that same sentiment.
So does Texas need the trans fats law? Probably, because there will be more than a few operators who will lamentably choose NOT to take the high road.
