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HEALTH: Restaurant industry wants national action on trans fat
        (AlbertaIndex, March 30) --- The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) has called on the Calgary Health Region to lobby Ottawa to reduce the level of trans fat in the country’s food supply. It said Ottawa should adopt recommendations by the Federal Trans Fat Task Force in recognizing the extent of trans fat content in Canadian foods, and to act to reduce it.
        Chaired by Health Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the task force recently completed a comprehensive, scientific review of the trans fat issue last summer, and recommends the trans fat content of vegetable oils and soft, spreadable margarines be limited to 2% of total fat, and the trans fat content of all other foods be limited to 5% of total fat. Trans fat cannot be totally banned, because it occurs naturally in some foods such as dairy and beef.
      
  In a report released earlier this week, the Federal Standing Committee on Health became the latest group to endorse the task force recommendations.
        “Restaurant operators are committed to reducing trans fat to the lowest possible level, and many have already succeeded. But the supply of healthier alternatives is currently not sufficient to meet all the demand from food manufacturers and restaurateurs,” said Joyce Reynolds, CFRA’s executive vice president. “If the federal task force report is adopted by government, it will send a strong signal to oilseed growers and processors to increase production of trans fat alternatives such as sunflower, corn, soybean and canola oil.”
        Restaurants purchase ingredients and menu items from food manufacturers, so trans fat can only be removed from restaurant menus as trans-free alternatives become available from manufacturers.
        “The federal task force report recognizes that this issue involves the entire food chain,” says Reynolds. “Moving too quickly runs the risk that trans fat will be replaced with higher levels of saturated fat, which won’t deliver the desired health benefits.”
        CRFA has published a step-by-step guide to help restaurant operators work with their suppliers to reduce trans fat from menus items. The free guide can be downloaded from CRFA’s website at www.crfa.ca.

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