NEW YORK — New York City, long known for clogged arteries during rush hour, took a big and controversial step Tuesday toward helping improve human arteries when the Board of Health officially banned artificial trans fats from restaurant menus.
The board, which passed the ban unanimously, gave restaurants a slight break by relaxing what had been considered a tight deadline for compliance. Restaurants will be barred from using most frying oils containing artificial trans fats by July, and will have to eliminate artificial trans fats from all served foods by July 2008.
"I am very supportive of the changes," said Hasan, a manager at Dervish, a Turkish restaurant. "We stopped using trans fats a long time ago. Health is the most important factor, and people will just have to get used to it."
Pushcart vendor Abu doesn't buy the ban.
"You need a little trans for good taste. I think this is a very bad idea," he said.
City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden had said that officials weighed complaints from the restaurant industry, which argued that it was unrealistic to give them six months to replace cooking oils and shortening and 18 months to phase out the ingredients altogether.
2006-12-05
06:41:49
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