Should Quebec restaurants ban trans fats?

A movement to ban trans fats in Quebec restaurants is causing a stir.

A petition with over 1,000 names on it is asking that restaurants and cafeterias ban trans fats because, unlike in grocery stores, restaurant food doesn't list the ingredients.

Health advocacy groups agree the big restaurant chains have gotten better, but are still not good enough

“For example, Tim Horton's made a new ‘beigne Oreo’ and they have 2.5 grams of trans fat in it,” said Corinne Voyer, director of the Quebec Coalition on Weight-Related Problems.

Her group used an Access to Information request to receive federal government figures showing Canadians consume too much trans fat.

Voyer said restaurants need to quit the trans fat habit.

“It's not changing the taste, it's not more expensive and there are many, many kinds of substitutes,” she said.

Experts say people can create trans fats even unintentionally.

“Frying the food whether it's olive oil, canola oil that at the beginning was a heart healthy fat the fact that you're frying you are doing this process of hydrogenation and trans fats are going to appear in the foods,” explains Karine Levy, spokesperson for Dieticians of Canada.

Trans fats lead to clogged arteries and heart disease, said Levy.

There are 20,000 restaurants in Quebec, many of them in small towns. A law would be hard to enforce and impractical, especially if you change your menu every day, said industry group Restaurants Canada.

Some restaurant cooks buy food at the market daily, which requires being flexible

“You come up at 10 o’clock to buy your stuff and it's not available. It's too costly, they're not available, they're not good enough, so you change. How can you, between 11 and 12, have a complete trans fat analysis?” said Jean Lefebvre, Quebec vice-president of Restaurants Canada.

Lefebvre said 90 per cent of big-chain restaurants meet the guidelines for trans fats, and a law for small diners isn't workable.