California Restaurants Face Trans-Fat Ban Friday

California might be about to get healthier.

Thousands of California restaurants will be banned from using artery-clogging trans-fat ingredients in their food starting Friday, marking the first time an entire state made such food illegal. Restaurants fought the law, saying it was onerous even as they admit the fat was terribly bad for anyone eating it. The fats come in hydrogenated vegetable oils, which have been used in restaurants for years but are linked to heart disease.

The Golden State joins a number of other cities and counties around the country that have bans, including Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Suffolk County. With California, trans fat will be forbidden in areas covering 18 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. What's stunning is how quickly local governments moved. This wasn't a major public policy issue before 2005. New York was the first big city to pass a law in 2006 (it went into effect in 2008). Smoking bans took decades to pass in major cities.

Many of the biggest national restaurant chains saw this movement coming. McDonald's Corp. spent years secretly testing its trans-fat-free French fries because it was worried that customers would reject healthier versions, jeopardizing sales of the chain's signature product. The Golden Arches succeeded, however, in meeting the mandate in New York. Yum Brands Inc. started using cooking oils free of trans fat at its KFC and Taco Bell restaurants in 2007. It aims to ban the fat in cooking oils companywide in the next three years.

In California, it's the smaller restaurants and bakeries that may have a harder time complying. Recognizing this, the state is giving bakeries an extra year to make the switch. Fines for breaking the law range from $25 to $1,000.