May 07, 2026
MCKENZIE LANGE/Imagn Images
A City Council bill was introduced Thursday that would ban foie gras at restaurants and stores in Philadelphia. Above, a foie gras dish at Between the Trees restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina.
Philadelphia City Councilmember Cindy Bass revived a decades-old conflict by introducing a bill Thursday that would ban foie gras in the city.
The legislation proposes prohibiting the sale of the product at stores and restaurants. Foie gras, which is made from the fattened liver of a duck or goose, is controversial among animal rights activists because it requires force-feeding young animals to enlarge their liver up to 10 times its normal size.
Bass (D-8th) said she introduced the bill because the city should not profit from a product "linked to the cruel force-feeding of animals for a luxury market." Violators would get a warning for first-time offenses.
"It's a narrow, inhumane, warning-first bill that reflects our city's values without disrupting everyday food access or neighborhood businesses," Bass said. "Foie gras is a niche product that's served at fewer than 20 restaurants citywide and humane alternatives already exist, this legislation simply says that cruelty should not be a part of commerce in Philadelphia."
The legislation must be approved by a committee before it can return to the council floor for a final vote.
The feeding is considered particularly cruel as farmers have to insert the food down the throats of birds through a plastic or metal tube. A 2013 study in the National Library of Medicine found that the conditions required to produce foie gras caused distress to birds and is a risk to animal welfare. However, some argue producing foie gras is no worse than the conditions required for other types of meat.
Philadelphia wouldn't be the first to prohibit the product. California banned both the sale and production of foie gras in 2004, although the law has changed a few times since and has been challenged several times. The town of Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, banned sales of the product in May 2025. Pittsburgh also approved a ban in December 2023, although that legislation allows the product if sellers can provide documented evidence that the animals weren't force-fed. Violators are fined $500.
However, it's a fight not unfamiliar to the city. In 2006 and 2008, former Councilmember Jack Kelly introduced bills calling for a foie gras ban, but neither made it out of committee. Kelly declined to seek reelection in 2011, and the issue hasn't been addressed since.
At the time, protestors frequently picketed outside of restaurants that served the delicacy, and Philadelphia restaurateurs including Stephen Starr pulled it off their menu, the Inquirer reported. In 2015, former Caribou Cafe owner Olivier Desaintmartin told the outlet that for five years in a row in the mid-2000s, he had his window broken every time he served a foie gras special. However, the protests reportedly did little to dissuade diners.
