Trans Fats, We Lardly Knew Ye
The state Senate today passed Sen. Eliot Shapleigh's (D-El Paso) Bill 204, which calls for a ban on artificial trans fats from all Texas restaurants and requires all prepared and served food items to contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.
As Dallas News' Terrence Stutz reports, the measure passed on a 24-6 vote and now heads to the Texas House. While restaurants would be forced to abide by the new regulation, Stutz notes that certain exemptions could be granted for nonprofits, grocers, and bakeries—notably, state or county fairs (or that carnival off of HWY-71/290) could potentially continue to serve funnel cake and the like.
If ultimately approved, the bill will go into effect starting with chain restaurants and deploy across all restaurants in the state by the end of 2011.
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