If you crave shortening in your pie crust or french fries seeped in "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil," you'll have to dine outside Baltimore.
As of Sunday, Baltimore restaurants, delis, bakeries and corner lunch carts can no longer prepare food that contains 0.5 grams or more of unhealthful trans fats per serving.
FOR THE RECORD - In an article Monday about new trans fats limits in Baltimore, the last name of Maria Vaccaro, owner of Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop, was misspelled.
The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.
The city joined a growing number of places, including Montgomery County, New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and California, to ban trans fats that health advocates say clog arteries and lead to heart disease.
The city ban applies to all food preparers, including restaurants, delis in grocery stores and corner lunch carts, said Olivia D. Farrow, interim commissioner of health for the Baltimore City Health Department. It does not cover manufacturers' prepackaged foods, such as items in grocery stores.
Trans fats basically elevate your bad cholesterol levels, while lowering your good cholesterol that helps clear your arteries, Farrow says.
"The leading cause of death in Baltimore is heart disease," Farrow said. More than 1,600 deaths in Baltimore last year were related to heart disease, and the city's rate of heart disease deaths is 33 percent higher than the national average, she said.
Farrow said city inspectors will monitor food preparers. Violators initially will get warnings for the first couple of months, but officials have the power to take more severe steps, such as suspending a food license, for repeat offenders, she said.
Even before the ban took effect, many food preparers here, as well as national fast-food chains such as McDonald's, had made the switch to trans fat alternatives, such as canola oil.
Maria Vacarro, owner of Vacarro's Italian Pastry Shop, said the bakery had used vegetable shortening mainly to make cannolis. But the Little Italy bakery starting using trans fat-free oil last year when it learned of the city's pending ban.
"It's a little bit more expensive," Vacarro says. But customers don't seem to notice a difference, she says.
Now that trans fats are off the table, what's next?
Farrow said the city has a salt-reduction task force that's been meeting for a year, and will soon make recommendations.
