Campaign launches
One of Department's voluntary campaign posters
In August 2005, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene officially unveiled its trans fat public education campaign. The program developed and distributed posters, brochures and a health bulletin on trans fat and sent this information to the 30,000 licensed food outlets in the city, 15,000 suppliers and supermarkets, and hundreds of thousands of consumers through the City’s 311 information system and other routes. Mailings urged restaurants to remove artificial trans fat from food, suppliers to promote products with 0 grams of trans fat, and patrons to ask about oils used. [23] An August 10 press release quoting Commissioner Frieden said: “To help combat heart disease, the No. 1 killer in New York City, we are asking restaurants to voluntarily make an oil change and remove artificial trans fat from their kitchens.” [24] He compared trans fat to asbestos and lead.
To help restaurants, the department added a module on trans fat to its mandatory food handler’s course. Over the next half year, more than 7,800 restaurant food handlers received the training. Restaurants seemed in favor of the campaign and eager to make the switch from partially hydrogenated oils to less harmful products. “Working together to reduce trans fat from our kitchens will be one more way to ensure an enjoyable and healthy experience,” said E. Charles Hunt, executive vice president for the New York State Restaurant Association, which, at the time, represented 7,000 restaurants statewide. [25]
A chart distributed during the voluntary campaign.
No change . Eight months later, in April and May 2006, the department sent its inspectors back to city restaurants to gauge the effect of the voluntary program. Using the same methodology as the previous year, they surveyed 1,021 restaurants. The results were dispiriting. Despite the education campaign, extensive press coverage and fanfare, artificial trans fat use in the surveyed restaurants remained virtually unchanged at 51 percent. [26] Says Marcus: “When we said to [restaurant owners] look, trans fat kills people, it’s not necessary, you can replace it, they said, ‘Yeah, okay, fine.’ And they kept serving it.” [27]
[23] Angell et al, “Cholesterol Control Beyond the Clinic: New York City's Trans Fat Restriction,” Annals of Internal Medicine .
[24] Marc Santora, “Hold That Fat, New York Asks Its Restaurants,” New York Times , August 11, 2005. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/nyregion/11fat.html
[25] Ibid.
[26] Angell et al, “Cholesterol Control Beyond the Clinic: New York City's Trans Fat Restriction,” Annals of Internal Medicine.
[27] Author’s interview with Elliott Marcus in New York City, on November 30, 2011. All further quotations from Marcus, unless otherwise attributed, are from this interview.