City looks at banning trans fats in eateries

Boston health regulators could decide as early as February whether to ban trans fats in restaurants, the city's top health official said last night.

After hearing from New York health authorities about that city's recently adopted trans fat prohibition, John Auerbach, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, said his agency would continue reviewing the feasibility of a comparable ban.

"It's a challenging issue," Auerbach said. "I wouldn't want a regulation that couldn't be enforced in Boston."

David Mulligan , a former state public health commissioner who is now chairman of the board overseeing the city health commission, described Boston as "just sort of at the beginning of the process."

"I can just hear cries that we're becoming the food police and that we're infringing on rights," Mulligan said.

New York earlier this month became the first major city to ban virtually all trans fat from the meals cooked by restaurants.

Usually artificial, trans fats have been linked to increases in the bad form of cholesterol and, by extension, to heart disease. The fat is commonly used in commercially produced cakes, cookies, pies, margarine, and fried foods. Typically, it is used to extend shelf life, and some chefs have said it enhances the texture of certain food.

Studies show that during the past four decades, Americans have spent an increasing share of their food dollars dining outside the home. At the same time, their girth has expanded dramatically, with two-thirds of adults now overweight or obese.

The combination of those two trends has led public-health specialists to consider whether they can battle the obesity epidemic by regulating restaurants. That has made trans fat an obvious target.

On a telephone conference call yesterday, New York health officials described the details of their regulation and how it came into being.

"The ultimate goal here is to result in the best health impact," said Dr. Sonia Angell, director of New York's cardiovascular disease prevention program.

Auerbach and members of the public health commission asked the New York officials how the regulations will be enforced and how restaurants' concerns will be addressed.

In New York, health inspectors will look for trans fat violations when they check to make sure restaurant kitchens are clean and free of insect infestation. The inspectors will review menus, interview owners, and peer into kitchen pantries to make sure trans fat-laden products aren't lining shelves, said Elliott Marcus, associate commissioner for food safety and community sanitation in New York. And as the ban is phased in starting in July, New York will operate a telephone help line staffed by culinary science specialists to advise restaurants, and will offer training to chefs.

In Boston, the structure for regulating restaurants is different than in New York and that difference could be an obstacle to implementing a ban, Auerbach said. While the same agency sets public health policy and conducts restaurant inspections in New York, those duties are split between governmental units in Boston.

The four members of the seven-member health board who attended last night's briefing clearly indicated that they had reached no conclusion about the merits of a ban.

Auerbach said he hoped that by their February meeting, board members and staff specialists will be able to reach consensus on whether to eliminate trans fats. Any such ban would not be implemented before early 2008, Auerbach said.

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.