Paper Palate

The Chicago City Council has banned foie gras, smoking in public places and has considered setting cabbie dress codes and creating a smoking ban at beaches. But according to the New York Times, people are concerned that their latest proposed ban might be delving too far into people’s private lives. They are considering a complete ban on oils that contain trans fats for restaurants.

If approved, nutrition experts say, the ban will be the first in a major city, following the lead of towns like Tiburon, California, just north of San Francisco, where restaurant owners have voluntarily given up the oils. In truth, while the proposals’ prospects are uncertain, Chicago officials have been on a bit of a banning binge these days in what critics mock as City Hall’s effort to micromanage residents’ lives in mundane ways.

The original plan, as discussed in the New York Times, would mean that all Chicago restaurants would have to purchase higher cost oils in order to produce their foods. A higher cost of business could jeopardize smaller mom-and-pop type establishments, opponents like the Illnois Restaurant Association complained.

As it turns out, according to the Chicago Sun Times, councilmen are looking at a less stringent set of rules that would apply only to chain and fast food restaurants in response to the criticism.

The new version would mandate restaurants with more than $20 million of annual gross sales to take “artificial trans fats” off their menu of ingredients. If they don’t, they would pay through the nose — with fines ranging from $200 to $1,000 a day.

The ordinance defines artificial trans fats as “trans fatty acids produced when cooking oil is chemically modified, as in oil that has been partially hydrogenated.”

Still, the whole scenario seems a little unusual for regulation. While it would mean healthier food in many establishments for the citizens of Chicago and visitors, does the city have the right to govern that?

Even Mayor Richard M. Daley, who often promotes bicycle riding and who not long ago appointed a city health commissioner who announced he was creating health “report cards” for the mayor and the aldermen, has balked at a trans fat prohibition as one rule too many.

“Is the City Council going to plan our menus?” Mayor Daley asked.