AUSTIN – Texas restaurants would have to purge their menus of trans fats under legislation that the Senate approved Friday in response to growing health concerns about the substance.

The measure would require large restaurant chains – those with 15 or more locations – to be trans fat-free by Sept. 1, 2010, with smaller chains and standalone establishments given an extra year to comply.

Passed and sent to the House on a 24-6 vote, the bill would require that all restaurants be checked for compliance as part of their regular health and safety inspections.

Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, author of the measure, said leading national fast food chains such as McDonald's and Wendy's have already eliminated trans fat from their menus.

"It doesn't affect french fries or fried eggs," said Shapleigh, D-El Paso. "What it affects is the oil that is used to cook these products, and it is going to make restaurants go from oil that can hurt your health to oil that can help your health."

Shapleigh said an estimated 50,000 heart attacks a year in the U.S. are attributed to consumption of trans fat, and he pointed to rising obesity rates in Texas. Two-thirds of adults and 32 percent of high school students were overweight or obese in 2007, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Most of the trans fat consumed by Americans is man-made, created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oil to make it more solid. The process was first developed during World War II to extend the shelf life of many food products.

Texas would be just the second state to limit trans fats, after California.

Some in the Dallas restaurant industry said publicity on the topic prompted many restaurateurs to act months ago.

"A lot of chains, even smaller independents, have already moved to trans fat-free cooking oil," said Jamee Green, executive director of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association. "I don't know that it's going to have a huge impact."

To get Senate support for the measure, Shapleigh agreed to exempt grocery stores, bakeries and nonprofit groups that serve food, such as at a county fair or the State Fair of Texas.

That bothered some senators, who said the bill discriminated against certain establishments and sent a mixed message to consumers.

"We're saying it's a bad product, but it's OK for kids to eat it on a funnel cake at the State Fair," said Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte. "I don't see why you wouldn't just ban trans fat totally from the state."

Shapleigh noted that the Texas Restaurant Association endorses the bill.

Mark Parmerlee, chairman of Dallas-based Golden Franchising Co., which franchises the Golden Chick chain, said his company began addressing the issue two years ago, and has since switched from an oil blend with partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

"So whatever they do, we're fine," he said.