A Guyanese-owned restaurant was among four Queens, New York eateries which were fined for falling afoul of new trans fat rules.

According to the Times Ledger of New York the four were among the first businesses to be penalized under New York laws that require restaurants to change to other fats.

The Ledger said that the fines ranged from US$200 to US$2,000.

The Guyanese owner of one of the restaurants disagreed with the process.

“The way I understood it, it would take two years to phase them out,” said Rajendra Mahase, owner of Little Guyana Bake Shop. “I don’t know if they expected me to just take it all and dump it in the garbage.”

Mahase told the Ledger he was slowly phasing out his few remaining containers of ingredients, which included the fats. He said he did not know how much he was being fined, but planned to appeal for it to be dropped.

The Ledger added that under the new law, all city restaurants were required to switch to alternative oils and spreads with less than 0.5 grammes of trans fat per serving by early July. Fried foods like french fries fall under the new restriction, but using trans fats in oils used to deep fry yeast dough or in cake batter will be allowed until July 1, 2008.