“Editorial: Trans fats are bad, but state ban worse.” Chicago Sun Times Editorial. May 15th, 2011: “Many of the nation’s fast-food chains and food manufacturers already have eliminated trans fats from their products or have pledged to phase them out. Case in point: Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest grocer, recently announced a major initiative to voluntarily reduce the sugar and sodium content of its food and remove all trans fats, all in a nod to first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign. And the Illinois Restaurant Association hasn’t come out against the proposed trans fat ban in part, its representatives say, because its members already have stopped using it.”
Sheila O’Grady, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, disagrees with legislators saying restaurants have long been void of trans fats in their cooking oils and voluntarily stopped using trans fat products. “Restaurant operators have understood for a long time that consumers do not want their food cooked in trans fat oils,” O’Grady said in an email. “In fact, in polling our members, we could not find a single operator still using trans fat oils today.”