Register today for the 41st annual Canola Council convention March 9 – 11/08 in Boca Raton, Florida! - Call an airline, book the hotel and register for Canola! Growing a Healthier World set for March 9-11 at the Boca Raton Resort on Florida's Gold Coast, north of Fort Lauderdale. Catch the Early Bird Special - Register by February 8, 2008 and save $50 per full conference delegate registration.
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February 1, 2008
Wesson bottles highlight canola oil’s qualified health claim – Bottles of Wesson canola oil sold throughout the U.S. now bear a heart symbol on the front backed up by the Food and Drug Administration’s qualified health claim on the reverse.
Wesson has also launched a new-look website www.wessonoil.com and hired former TV mom Florence Henderson as spokesperson. Henderson’s presence will soon disappear from the website, but check out http://www.wessonoil.com/canola_oil.jsp to view the health claim. Find heart healthy tips at http://www.wessonoil.com/healthytips.jsp
Anti-trans fat movement goes west – The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is pushing to get trans fat out of city restaurants. But their approach differs from that of many other city governments.
With the approval of San Francisco’s leading restaurateurs’ association, the board voted unanimously to institute a voluntary program in which restaurants that pledge to cook without trans fat will receive a decal alerting customers that their food is being prepared without partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. The next step is to go for a mandatory ban, according to the legislation’s author.
Virginia schools to expel trans fat – State lawmakers in Virginia have proposed two different legislations that would make school food healthier. One bill would require schools to work to reduce trans fats in cafeteria food including snacks offered in vending machines. The second bill would require students in K-12 to have at least 30 minutes of exercise every day.
Webinar addresses consumer knowledge of fat – The Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition is hosting a webcast “Facilitating Consumer Understanding of Fat” February 28. Go to www.CCFN.ca and hit the Webcast icon. The event will be archived for one year.
CCFN will also launch Watching Briefs on Trans Fat and Fat Confusion and the consumer pieces Current Perspective on Trans Fat and Understanding Fat. Dow AgroSciences is the gold sponsor of the event.
New face on Canola Council crop production team – Arvel Lawson has joined the Canola Council as crop production program manager, based out of Winnipeg, MB. She will work on Council and canola industry programs focused on achieving the industry production target of 15 million tonnes by 2015.
Lawson comes to the Council from Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives, where she was business development specialist for oilseeds.
WTO agreement could be good for Canada – The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance is welcoming the prospect of a WTO agreement within the next few months.
The agreement seems to be promising for Canada, and CAFTA believes it can demonstrate that Canadian exporters will realize significant gains through a WTO agreement, says Darcy Davis, CAFTA president. Its analysis shows the agreement would generate an annual increase of about $3 billion in export value, he adds.
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