San Francisco Bans Trans Fats

Photo: Dieter Spears / Istock

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San Francisco is the latest city trying to run trans fats out of town.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to begin a City Hall push to get artery-clogging trans fats out of the food served in San Francisco restaurants. The board approved the measure unanimously, and had the approval of the city's leading restaurateurs' association.

This is a voluntary program, and, according to the report, restaurants that pledge to cook without trans fats will receive a decal that can be displayed to let customers know their food is being prepared without partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

The legislation's author, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, said the next step is to make the ban mandatory.

New York City approved a mandatory ban in late 2006. Restaurants have to comply by July 2008. Philadelphia and Tiburon also have trans-fat bans.

Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at NYU and blogger for The Daily Green, told the newspaper that while trans fats are not good for you, she is much more concerned about the amount of saturated fats in people's diets: "My feeling is trans fats are bad and should be gone, but they are not that bad. It's not like you're going to eat them and die on the spot."

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is also contemplating requiring restaurants with more than 14 outlets in the state to post nutrition information next to menu items, much like New York City has done. That proposal will be heard at a committee meeting next month.

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