The canola industry’s glee over the international move against trans fats has proved well placed as more fast food companies announce they are switching to canola.
Trans fats have been targeted because they are a key culprit in promoting heart disease, increasing low-density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol, the bad type and lowering high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol, the good type.
Last week Taco Bell, the fifth largest fast food restaurant chain in the United States with about 5,000 restaurants, said it would convert all of its restaurants in North America to zero trans fat, high-stability canola oil made from Nexera canola developed by Dow AgroSciences.
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Dow AgroSciences said it would contract with farmers to produce more of the specialty canola.
Other restaurant chains, including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy’s, Chili’s and Ruby Tuesday, are also moving to eliminate trans fats, but they are using various vegetable oils and processes.
KFC in Canada will use high stability canola oil, but in the U.S. it will use low-linolenic soybean oil. KCF Canada said the switch to canola would also lower saturated fat content by about 40 percent. Church’s, a chicken restaurant chain in British Columbia, has also switched to oil made with Nexera.
The American fast food scene was shaken recently when New York City proposed banning trans fats from restaurant meals. The proposal goes to the New York City Board of Health in December for a formal vote.
The original proposal gives eateries six months to replace their cooking oils and shortening with zero trans fat products and 18 months to eliminate trans fats in their foods altogether.
The proposal might be changed to give restaurants more time.
Giant companies like McDonald’s, with more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. alone, have moved cautiously toward trans fat elimination because they worry that meddling with the taste of their signature fries could turn customers off.
One of their considerations is whether they can get a large, steady supply of non trans fat oil.
The Taco Bell announcement is significant because it shows that Dow AgroSciences and its oil
suppliers have convinced at least one major company that it can deliver the stable large supply.
While McDonald’s in the U.S. hasn’t decided how to proceed toward the new no trans fat world, its European division has said it will meet trans fat requirements there
by 2008 with high oleic oil from canola or sunflower.
All this focus on trans fats is
making people more aware of the link between the types of fat in their diet and the effect on cholesterol.
That could be good news for another of Canada’s oilseeds, flax.
Until now, doctors have
focused on lowering people’s LDL cholesterol, but medical opinion
is now starting to concentrate
more on increasing HDL for its ability to reduce plaque in artery walls, protecting against heart
disease.
One way to boost HDL is to increase omega 3 fatty acids and a good source of those is flax.
