New York Restaurants Need an Oil Change

Posted on | October 6, 2006 | Comments Off on New York Restaurants Need an Oil Change

New York is the nation’s largest restaurant market with 20,000 outlets. That’s why last week’s announcement from the NYC Health Department proposing city-wide controls on trans fat levels in restaurant food drew such a huge response. Restaurants would have 18 months to adjust their menus and remove nearly all the trans fats from their food.

McDonald’s small fries? Goodbye 3.5 grams. Dunkin’ Donuts’ glazed donut? See ya, 4 grams. Burger King’s Whooper? Adios, a whopping 39 grams.

The National Restaurant Association opposes the plan. Donna Garren from the association told The Wall Street Journal it “will not work well for the restaurant industry.” Come on Donna, get with the plan! Check out some of your members. Wendy’s, Ruby Tuesday, California Pizza Kitchen, Panera Bread Company, and Legal Sea Foods have all removed or significantly reduced their trans fats. Legal Sea Foods worked the issue until they found an alternative canola oil, with no trans fat, with a cost increase of less than 1%. Donna, maybe some of your members should ring up Richard Vellante. He’s Legal Sea Foods’ executive chef. He says switching wasn’t easy, but he did it, and that’s what counts.

Readers, what do you think about a potential trans fat ban in New York and other cities around the country?