See It: The Community being helped

The Madison Trans Fat Reduction Project is an organized effort by the University of Wisconsin-Madison student organization Informed Consumers Equal Improved Health to reduce the amount of trans fat in Madison, WI area restaurants through the creation of a two-tier award system designed to promote restaurants that either do not cook in partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat) or do not use any trans fat in their establishment as a whole. Awards will be based upon survey results from every restaurant in the Madison area on the use of partially hydrogenated cooking oil and overall trans fat content. We have created a website, http://www.transfreemadison.com, that details all of our efforts thus far and our project goals for the near and distant future. We have already completed the arduous task of surveying every restaurant in Madison in person on the use of partially hydrogenated cooking oils. Furthermore, for the establishments that do not use such oils, we have created and recently sent by mail a second, more detailed survey requesting a full inventory assessment of items that contain partially hydrogenated oil. We have already received several responses and await many more. Based on these secondary results, establishments that have a sufficiently low level of trans fats throughout their menu will be awarded a "Gold Award"; establishments that do not meet this criteria but do not cook with partially hydrogenated cooking oil will receive a "Silver Award." Each of these awards will require the owner/manager to sign a pledge to continue to uphold the status given by their award. Accompanying these awards will be informational pamphlets for consumers in order to improve awareness of the health hazards associated with trans fat and put business pressure on establishments that use partially hydrogenated oil to change their ways. However, this project also seeks to work with, not against, restaurant owners: we do not support a government-imposed ban on trans fat (as in New York City) that is highly unpopular among owners and managers, but instead we feel that this effort can allow for owners, consumers, and government to work in alliance to help create a healthier and better informed Madison community. The final step in this project is to create the physical awards (paper awards, frames) and informational brochures on trans fat, as well as to publicize an awards ceremony in order to get the word out in the community about this project so that the awards will be recognizable and their significance comprehensible to the consumer.