New York City Bans Trans Fats From Eateries
City Health Board Approves Ban on Trans Fats
The New York City Board of Health voted today to ban artificial trans fats in the city’s eateries, establishing more rigorous limits than any other American city on an ingredient considered by doctors and nutritionists to increase the risk of heart disease. The new requirements will mean that the city’s 20,000 food establishments, from high-end bistros to neighborhood delis, will be barred from using most frying oils containing artificial trans fats by July 1, 2007, and will have to eliminate the artificial trans fats from all of their foods by July 1, 2008. The establishments have to switch to oils, margarines and shortening that meet the limits and bring their menus into compliance. The new rules, however, will allow restaurants to serve foods that come in the manufacturer’s original packaging, even if they contain traces of trans fats. The health department’s new limits, which were advocated by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, will make New York the first large city in the country to strictly limit the chemically modified ingredients that were once considered a benign alternative to the saturated fats in butter.
No reasonable person would argue that transfats are a good thing (he says as he chows down on his fifth Oreo cookie), but even I have to wonder where this crazy train is going to stop. I realize that Adam and others will likely nail me for being horribly inconsistent, but then life is full of inconsistencies, no? While I’m all for the burgeoning numbers of smoking bans going up all around the country, I find myself wondering if New York City’s transfat ban is only the beginning of a disturbing trend.
Hey, I’ll admit it. I don’t mind government banning things I’m opposed to, but like anyone else, try banning something I like…and face my wrath at your own peril. I make no claim to consistency in this respect; it’s a purely subjective and highly emotional process…and it is what it is. Deal with it, or take your ball and bat somewhere else.
Over the next six to 18 months, cooks in the five boroughs will have to change frying oils, bakers will have to seek out new shortenings, and restaurant goers may have to get used to new tastes as the city moves forward with its latest initiative to make New Yorkers healthier.
Public health experts predicted the ban on trans fat could prevent up to 500 deaths from cardiovascular disease a year in New York City, while representatives of restaurant owners complained it would have a negative impact, particularly on small businesses and ethnic restaurants.
“This is just a case of Big Brother trying to impose a law on a very burdened industry,” said Louis Nunez of the Latino Restaurant Association, which represents 4,000 New York City restaurants.
Owning a restaurant is a tough, tough undertaking- especially in a hypercompetitive place like New York. These new rules certainly aren’t going to make being profitable any easier. The question now becomes which is more important, public health or private profitability?…as if these things have to be mutually exclusive.
As a result of the Board of Health’s decision today, restaurants in New York have until July 1 to switch to oils, margarines, and shortenings used for frying and spreading that have less than .5 grams of trans fat. By July 1, 2008, everything else they serve that’s not in the manufacturer’s original packaging has to have less than .5 grams of trans fat.
My initial reaction to this idea was that the idea was laudable, but the execution…well, that’s going to have to remain to be seen. While I have no problem with the concept of banning transfats, even I have to wonder where the logical stopping point is. If it’s transfats today, perhaps it will be strawberry margaritas tomorrow. Or Captain Crunch. Or Jagermeister (hey, it contains deer blood….).
I’ve always firmly believed that one of the chief roles of government is to protect the public health. At some point, though, doing that crosses over into the realm of “nanny state”. I’m not smart or self-absorbed enough to know where that line is, and I’m not about to bust a lot of brain cells trying to figure it out. Nonetheless, at some point, we may well wake up one morning and realize that coffee is a controlled substance.
And I’m going to be pissed. Sure, you can have my caffeine- when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers….
