As Montgomery’s January deadline banning restaurants and other food vendors from serving trans-fatty acids approaches, county Health and Human Services officials said Tuesday that regulating the law could be difficult and more resources could be needed.
The department will be expected to inspect more than 3,600 food service facilities annually, Health Officer Ulder Tillman told the County Council. Health department employees have been using materials from a similar bill passed in New York City to get the word out about the ban. A Web site, hot line and a series of training courses have also been set up, she said.
“This is a situation where we have to educate ourselves in terms of our regulators, we have to educate our vendors and we have to educate the public,” Tillman said.
Tillman said the office has 18 inspectors and could need to hire more to help handle the ban. The county has indicated that it will fund those additional jobs but when that might happen has not been clear, Tillman said.
“I think they have heard that we’ve got to do this,” Tillman said. “We now have a law that we must enforce.”
Council Member Duchy Trachtenberg said those needs could considered at upcoming budget sessions. But Trachtenberg added that similar concerns had not been shared by Health Department Director Uma Ahlawalia.
“Once this is in practice for a certain amount of time, all you are doing is adding an additional item to inspections that happen routinely anyway that health inspectors are trained for,” Trachtenberg said.
Montgomery in May became the first county in the nation to ban the artery-clogging fat from restaurant menus and other food vendor’s shelves. One part of the legislation that bans restaurants and vendors from serving foods fried in trans fats will take effect Jan. 8, 2008. Baked goods will be restricted in January 2009.
The county agreed to grant an extension to establishments that have trouble meeting the legislation’s demands until January 2010 after opposition from the Restaurant Association of Maryland.
