California may become the first state in the nation to ban trans fats if Gov. Schwarzenegger signs a bill passed by the state Legislature, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Although New York City has been through a long and arduous process of banning trans fats, which doctors say contribute to heart disease, no other state has banned their use in restaurants. Gov. Schwarzenegger has not yet indicated whether or not he will sign the bill.

 

The author of the California bill is Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, who represents Los Angeles County. "When it comes to heart disease and diabetes, communities of color are leading the way," Mendoza told the Chronicle. According to the paper:

Mendoza’s bill would require restaurants, hospitals and facilities with food-preparation areas to remove oils, shortenings and margarines with trans fats by Jan. 1, 2010, except for use in deep frying for dough and batter. Bakers would be given an extra year to figure out how to make goods free of partial hydrogenation. By Jan. 1, 2011, food preparation sites would have to eliminate all ingredients with trans fats or face fines from $25 to $1,000. The bill exempts public school cafeterias, which must be trans fat free under a law that takes effect at the start of the coming year.

 

In 2007, New Mexico state Rep. Irvin Harrison, now retired, introduced a bill (HB 1203) that would have required restaurants with three or more locations to post information on trans fat content; it also would have strictly limited trans fat content to less than .5 grams per serving, the same as the California bill.

 

Harrison’s bill was never brought to a vote, but he instead submitted a memorial (HM 87), requesting the Environmental Improvement Board to "study ways to identify the trans fat content in restaurant food and convey this information to customers and develop guidelines for use of trans fats."

 

Requests for information about that study from the Environment Department and Environmental Improvement Board were unsuccessful. "The Legislature is going in the opposite direction," Sen. Dede Feldman, Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, says. "There’s actually ridicule for those kinds of bills in the Senate, which is unfortunate in my opinion, given our obesity epidemic."

 

Feldman referenced the "Right to Eat Enchiladas Act," introduced by Sen. Steve Komadina (who is a physician) in 2005. To paraphrase, the bill was meant to stop people from suing restaurants whose fatty food made them fat. It died.

 

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that consumption of trans fats should be as low as possible. In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration began requiring food manufacturers to list trans fats separately from other fats on the Nutrition Facts panel of the label.