Bakers frosted by trans fat ban

Dough isn't the only thing rising in Philadelphia's bakeries.

Several bakers are fuming over the city's decision to ban trans fats, saying it's no small matter to tweak a cake or cookie recipe with a substitute ingredient, especially a recipe that dates back generations.

"My grandfather passed away a couple of years ago, I'm glad he's not alive to witness this," said Mark Stock, a fourth-generation owner of Stock's Bakery in Port Richmond.

Stock's pound cake, he says, isn't any old pound cake. Mess with the shortening, and you mess with Stock's 88-year-old business and reputation.

Whether it's his pound cake or the Holmesburg Bakery's Jewish apple cake, banning trans fat would "annihilate the legacy of every family bakery," Stock said.

Thanks to a bill introduced yesterday in City Council, Stock and others may get a chance to air their gripes about the ban - and offer their baked goods - at a hearing in City Hall.

Signed into law last February, the ban takes effect in two stages, beginning Sept. 1, when city eateries will be prohibited from frying foods in trans fat or serving margarine and other trans-fat-based spreads. The following September will see trans fats banned as an ingredient in commercial kitchen foods. Prepackaged goods, such as those made by Tastykake, are exempt from the ban.

Yesterday, City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski introduced a bill to exempt smaller bakeries. "It just isn't fair to the mom-and-pop stores," she said.

Her measure drew an immediate response from the author of the trans-fat ban, Councilman Juan Ramos, who asked her to withdraw it. Ramos offered to personally help bakeries find oils to substitute for trans fats, the margarines and other semisolid fats that nutritionists blame for clogged arteries and increased heart disease.

Krajewski wouldn't have it. She wants the small bakers to testify at an as-yet unscheduled hearing, and to bring a cookie or two with them so Council can see - and taste - the difference.

Without the trans fat, she said, "They just don't have the same flavor."