July 20, 2007

Fat Cat City to trim the fat - The city of Calgary, AB is poised to take its lead from the Calgary Stampede in forcing all area restaurants to eliminate trans fat from their menus. In an initiative led by the Calgary Health Region, the city is even eyeing grocery stores.

The federal government decision to allow business another two years to make voluntary changes on eliminating trans fat is not fast enough, says Dr. Brent Friesen, Calgary's chief medical officer. "We're keeping Health Canada informed of our initiative, but we feel there are benefits of making this a requirement," he says.

Friesen reportedly wants restaurants in the Calgary Health Region to use trans fat-free cooking oil by January 1, 2008. A ban on trans fat in all foods, such as packaged baking, could come into effect as early as October 1, 2008. This would require any establishment carrying a food permit, including supersized grocery stores, specialty delis and convenience stores, to follow the new law.

For more on this story, go to: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/236288

The Emerald City bans trans - People in Seattle will be able to make more informed food choices and have a safer food supply... that's how King County's Board Of Health explains last evening's decision to ban artificial trans fat in all Seattle restaurants. The move passed by a margin of 10 to 1.

The ban will be phased in within the next 9 months for frying oil and shortening. Restaurants will have 18 months to get rid of trans fat in margarine, spreads and baking products. Failure to comply could be cause for forced closure.

Check the story at: http://www.kirotv.com/health/13653428/detail.html

Abuelo's chain says adios to trans fat - Abuelo's Restaurants announced this week that all 38 of its U.S. locations will convert to trans fat-free cooking oil. The new oil, which Abuelo's did not identify, will be supplied by Ventura Foods.

"We have been testing trans fat-free oil in several stores and have been delighted by the outstanding guest response," says Bob Lin, president of Food Concepts International, Abuelo's parent company. "In tests on several core items, we found consumers readily accepted the items cooked in trans fat-free oil, either not noticing any differences or, in some cases, noting improvement in these items."

Abuelo's says it is the first national, full-service casual dining Mexican food restaurant to make a trans fat-free cooking oil commitment.

What a choice - Whataburger goes trans-free - Whataburger, the Corpus Christi, TX-based fast food chain, has decided to convert the cooking oil in all of its 650-plus franchises to trans fat-free oil. Whataburger issued a Q&A, indicating the change will be complete by this fall.

Go to www.whataburger.com to see nutritional information on all of Whataburger's food products.

McDonald's rep checks out prairie canola - McDonald's director of U.S. supply chain management, Vicki Spiller, visited the Cargill canola crushing plant at Clavet, SK last week and spoke to canola growers during a field tour. McDonald's recently switched to a high stability canola oil blend to cook its famous french fries and chicken nuggets.

The canola oil blend is already in place at 3,500 restaurants in North America, and the remaining 11,500 will make the change by next year. The switch was taken very seriously, says Spiller. It was preceded by five years of discussion and testing to ensure the fries would maintain their traditional McDonald's flavour.

"We saw no significant difference in any of the consumer research or customer satisfaction scores," she adds.

Another nod to canola oil from Oprah's personal trainer - To help maintain good health, keep the right kind of foods, including canola oil, in your pantry, says Bob Greene, author and Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer.

"Olive oil and canola oil are must-haves for any pantry. Both have heart-healthy monounsaturated fat and can be used in dressings, for stir-fries and more," says Greene. He also includes hold and cold cereal, canned beans, fish and veggies, dried fruit, nuts, onions and garlic on the list of pantry essentials.

For the complete list, visit: http://www2.oprah.com/health/bob/bestlife/recipes/recipe_pantry.jhtml

CanolaInfo supports world's longest BBQ - Canadian food writer Anita Stewart is once again inviting Canadians to head to their grills at 6 p.m. Saturday August 4, 2007 with an armload of local ingredients - as many as you can find - and create the largest food event in the nation's history. She says this year's mega-barbecue is a chance "to collectively celebrate Canada and its ingredients, while saluting our farmers and fishers across the land."

To join the party log at http://www.flavoursofcanada.ca and register by telling us your story, your menu and some of the special ingredients that we can claim as our own

Canola research central to new North Dakota facility - ND governor John Hoeven officially opened a new $2 million agronomy building and greenhouse at the North Central Research Extension Center in Minot this week. A research scientist at the Center, Dieter Hermsmier, says the goal for the new facility is "to promote increased production through higher yielding varieties and by finding locally adapted varieties of canola so that acreage can increase". About 95 percent of the 1.3 million U.S. acres in canola are in North Dakota.

Biofuel partnership to open shop in Alberta - Canadian Green Fuels and Cansource BioFuels have announced plans to open a new biodiesel production facility in Mayerthorpe, AB. The new joint venture will be called Cansource CGF Mayerthorpe.

"This joint venture agreement will provide Canadian Green Fuels a link to expanding its production facilities outside Saskatchewan in a place that has an abundance of canola," says Michael Shenher, president of Canadian Green Fuels. The deal will see the construction and development of a community-based, integrated crushing and biodiesel facility to process 10 million litres of canola-based biodiesel. It will be scaled up to produce 40 million litres by 2010.

Canadian Green Fuels has also partnered with U.S. company AlgoDyne Ethanol Energy Inc. They plan to build and operate a fleet of retail biofuel stations in western Canada. For more, go to: www.algodynecorp.com

Seeing is believing! - If you've ever doubted the power of canola biodiesel, check out this "Zoom Zoom" video on YouTube for the jet-propelled canola biodiesel funny car driven by Humboldt's Kevin Therres! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAS1zIZwOvQ

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