Entries from December 2006
GOOD TRANS FATS
Scientists at theUniversity of Arkansas have created a trans fat that is actually good for you. Using soy oil, Andrew Proctor, professor of food science, has produced a cooking oil that is rich in CLA, conjugated linoleic acid.
CLA gives the immune system a boost and helps reduce the risks of cancer and diabetes. Studies have shown that eating diets rich in CLA reduces body fat and waist size.
The scientists plan on producing potato chips with the CLA, which would actually make them, “healthier potato chips.” The scientist cautions that it is still not a good idea to eat loads of fat-rich foods, but a few of their chips will provide needed CLA. Their aim is to use the CLA oils in other high-fat foods such as salad oils and dressings.
(more…)
Categories: Trans-fats · Trends
Taco Bell invites customers back.
With the backing of the Center for Disease Control and the FDA, Taco Bell says that the e coli danger is over and it is safe once again to join them for lunch, or even dinner.
All of the stores in the region have been completely sanitized and the old food thrown away and new suppliers contracted. Though Taco Bell pulled all of the green onions from all of its stores in the U.S. immediately after the outbreak, it turns out that it was the unassuming lettuce that carried the e coli bacteria.
Experts agree that Taco Bell reacted immediately to the crisis and did everything it could to contain the outbreak. Now the company plans to lead an industry coalition of government regulators, competitors, suppliers and other experts to develop improved guidelines and procedures to safeguard the produce supply line.
Categories: E. Coli
The National Restaurant Association has released the results of its intense research into the state of the restaurant industry for 2007, including a 1000-chef survey of upcoming trends.
Despite increased meddling on the part of city councils, the industry broke its sales record this year and expects to top it again in 2007 to the tune of $537 billion (or roughly four percent of the gross domestic product). That five-percent increase depends on a continuing increase in employment and favorable economy. Speaking of which, the NRA expects to add two million new career opportunities to its industry as well.
The number-one new trend seems to be an answer to obesity: bite-sized desserts. Following that are locally grown produce and other foods (possibly a response to e coli outbreaks); flatbreads and bottled water (which hardly seem new); pomegranates, figs, free-range meats, exotic mushrooms and foccaccia (which makes Jack in the Box the number-one trendsetter).
This generation has grown up with Italian, Mexican and Chinese foods and doesn’t consider them to be ethnic foods. Though those choices will stay strong, consumers are looking to Mediterranean, Latin American and Pan Asian cuisines for something new.
Quick-service restaurants will continue their inclusion of more diverse menu items, especially in the healthy-foods category. Specifically, look for entrée salads, wraps, energy drinks and espresso. Though take-out continues to grow, consumers say they’re more likely to take it all the way home these days instead of eating in their cars.
Kiwi and starfruit are on their way out, according to the report, and Scandinavian foods and organ meats continue to make most chefs gag.
More details are available on the NRA’s website or on Podcast Grill’s interview with the NRA’s chief researcher, Hudson Riehle.
Categories: Trends
Most physicians oppose a ban on trans fats, according to a recent survey of 600 doctors conducted by HCD Research and Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.
More than half of the physicians surveyed (53 percent) oppose a national law that would ban trans fats in restaurants. The same amount believe that the new law banning trans fats in New York City would not have a significant impact on New Yorkers’ health.
Though 83 percent of the doctors feel that food containing trans fats is a significant risk factor for heart disease, less than half of them report that they actively teach their patients about trans fats.
Half of the doctors feel that the government doesn’t have the right to implement such a law.
Categories: Trans-fats
The nation’s largest family dining chain, Denny’s, announced yesterday afternoon that it is implementing a plan to eliminate trans fats from all of its menu items.
Based on its taste tests so far, Denny’s predicts that it will be able to transfer to alternative cooking oils in all of its 1500 restaurants by the first half of 2007. Once they have converted in food preparation, they hope to have all of their suppliers converted as well.
Denny’s is one of the first major chains other than fast-foods to announce the move away from trans fats. They now join Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC and Arby’s; McDonald’s and Burger King have not yet announced any plans regarding trans fats.
Categories: Trans-fats
The San Diego City Council is now deliberating a proposal to ban foie gras from all restaurants in its city limits. Clearly concerned that the Chicago City Council, which considered the same legislation a couple months ago, would steal California’s reputation as the nuttiest place on Earth, SD listened yesterday to animal-rights activists.
It is not the killing of the goose that bothers the activists as much as it is the force-feeding of the birds in order to enlarge their livers. A spokesman for the California Restaurant Association maintained that the process is not inhumane, and also argued that it should be left to consumers to decide whether or not they want to eat it.
Freedom of eating! What a concept!
Categories: Uncategorized
After the FDA announced they could not find any e coli on the samples of green onions that Taco Bell gave them, New York health officials admitted they had it all wrong.
Now, seemingly after firing the color-blind lab workers, they say it was white onions that had the e coli. Only it’s not the same strain of e coli that has infected over 300 New Yorkers.
The FDA says that this doesn’t mean it wasn’t green onions; it is just that those particular green onions weren’t affected. Health officials (hopefully not the same ones) are still searching for the source of the e coli.
Meanwhile, nineteen Taco Bell restaurants in New Jersey remain closed.
Categories: E. Coli
Taco Bell has pulled green onions from all of its 5800 restaurants as of yesterday in the wake of an e coli outbreak in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
The move, which may seem to err on the side of over-caution, is standard operating procedure now for the large chains when it comes to containing food-borne illnesses. According to experts, it is about the only thing restaurants can do.
Chemical and heat intervention, which is used to kill bacteria in other foods, can’t be used on produce. And there is nothing a farmer can do to prevent it out in the field. Because outbreaks are becoming more common, industry experts predict a ramping up of the “random” testing of produce.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates that each year 33 million Americans become sick from food-borne illnesses (not just e coli); more than 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die.
Categories: E. Coli · Food Borne Illness
Yesterday’s unanimous ban on trans fats by the New York City Board of Health has met with dismay and universal concern by the restaurant industry.
Besides being yet another example of “Big Brother” tactics by local governments, the legality of the move is being questioned. How is it that a local agency can ban a product that is permitted by the FDA, the restaurant industry wonders.
The logistics of switching oils is a problem, too. It took Wendy’s restaurants two years to find a suitable replacement, and McDonald’s has been studying the issue for some time but has yet to make any changes. New York restaurants have about seven months. A spokesperson for the National Restaurant Association predicted that many restaurants would have to switch back to saturated fats.
Most of the 20,000 restaurants affected by the ban are family owned, many by immigrants who don’t speak English and have never heard of trans fats. “I’m concerned the first time they will hear about trans fats is when the inspector socks them with a fine,” says N.Y. State Restaurant Association spokesman Charles Hunt.
In a recent survey by the Latino Restaurant Association of their 1000 restaurants in New York City, nearly 90 percent of the owners didn’t know what trans fat was.
Categories: Trans-fats
