The Boston Traveler

…soon.

If you already live in Boston or plan on visiting the city and have an inexplicable love for trans fats, I’ve got some sad, bad news to pass on today. This afternoon, the Boston Public Health Commission held a public hearing as the final phase of its deliberations on whether or not area food-service businesses should be banned from selling products with artificial trans fats, partially hydrogenated substances that wreak havoc on human arteries.

There must not have been significant opposition because after the hearings ended, the commission approved the regulation. As a result, Boston now joins New York and Philadelphia in banning “all food service establishments from serving food or beverage containing artificial trans fat or partially hydrogenated oil that raises the risk of heart disease.”

The new “oil order” in food establishments will unfold in two stages, with the first targeting the elimination of artificial trans fats from all cooking oils, margarines, and shortenings starting on September 13, 2008. Six months later, the second stage will hone in on the removal of artificial trans fats from all baked goods and other relevant foods.

Thanks to this new regulation, consumers who patronize Hub “restaurants, grocery stores, delis, cafeterias in schools and businesses, caterers, senior-center meal programs, children’s institutions, mobile food-vending units, and commissaries that supply them, bakeries, park concessions, street-fair food booths, and other establishments required to hold an operating permit from Boston’s Inspectional Services Department” will have an easier time avoiding foods and drinks that could increase their risk of heart disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes, all of which have been linked to artificial trans fats.

That sounds good to me.

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