UN finds progress in tackling bird flu
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:18:47 GMTBy MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer
ROME - Countries are making progress in fighting bird flu but concerns remain for some nations — especially Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria — where human contamination is still possible, the United Nations said Wednesday.
Scientists and officials gathering in Rome for a three-day technical meeting on bird flu said that in most cases the virus is rapidly detected and kept under control, as most countries are equipped with improved response systems. However, in nations that combine a high density of population and unsafe poultry management, the situation remains serious.
"There is great improvement of preparedness and response," with countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East rapidly detecting and eliminating the virus, said Joseph Domenech, the chief veterinary officer of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "What makes the battle against avian influenza so difficult are the many high-risk poultry production and marketing practices that still continue in many countries."
Domenech said that Indonesia presents the highest danger due to the great number of people having direct contact with poultry. Indonesia has more than 13,000 live poultry markets where birds of different origins are mixed, according to the Rome-based agency.
The experts stressed the need for continued surveillance and closer international cooperation, as well as improved hygienic conditions, specially in markets.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has devastated poultry stocks since 2003 and killed at least 191 people worldwide. Experts fear that the virus could mutate into a form easily spread between people, potentially igniting a flu pandemic.
"The persistence of H5N1 despite all efforts to tackle it is a concern," said David Nabarro, the U.N. official coordinating the global fight against bird flu. "We need to have a combination of political will and solidarity ... to make sure all nations are pandemic-ready."
NYC eateries ready for trans fat switch
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:39:55 GMTBy DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - No more trans fats with those french fries? No problem. The city's ballyhooed ban on trans fat cooking oils in all New York restaurants — an idea that gave chefs indigestion when first proposed — seems to be going surprisingly smoothly. Across the city, most fast food chains say they've already made the switch days before the July 1 deadline, which is Sunday.
The same cannot be said for a second restaurant rule taking effect then: the posting of calories on fast-food menus. The major chains are defying that regulation and hope a lawsuit will overturn it.
The city doesn't plan to fine anyone for violating either rule until Oct. 1.
Still, the trans fat overhaul is viewed as a major victory by health advocates. Trans fats, found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, clog arteries and contribute to heart disease. But they are also cheaper and have a longer shelf life, so industry at first stubbornly resisted dumping them.
That began to change last winter.
Cooking oil companies had already ramped up production of trans-fat alternatives. Restaurant supply companies began stocking kitchens with replacement products.
Big fast food chains that relied heavily on the old oils, from Burger King to Carl's Jr. to Kentucky Fried Chicken, announced they would eliminate the stuff from their fryers nationwide.
Even McDonald's, which had anguished over the potential impact on its french fries, said its phase-in of the new oils in thousands of restaurants has gone unnoticed by customers.
"The transition has been absolutely seamless," said spokesman Walt Riker.
While the city health department hasn't finished tallying results of a recent survey on oil use, there is evidence that smaller restaurants are ready too.
A special help line, set up by the city for chefs trying to reform their kitchens, has been lightly used.
The ease of the switch to zero-trans oils may have been aided by the behind-the-scenes work of seed and oil companies.
David Dzisiak, a cooking oils specialist at Dow AgroSciences, said the company began investing research dollars in zero-trans fat Omega-9 canola and sunflower oils back when the very first studies suggested the oils were unhealthy.
"We started on this 10 years ago," he said. "We now have the capacity to supply over a billion pounds of this oil."
Resistance to the ban still exists, but it may be primarily on philosophical grounds.
Mat Arnfield, the chef at A Salt & Battery, a much-loved Manhattan fish and chips shop, said any cooks still complaining about the change aren't concerned with taste.
The primary difference between the trans-fat oils and their alternatives, he said, is cost. The blend of corn and canola oils he uses in his frying bins now is slightly more expensive than the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils rich in trans fats, but the price difference is small.
"If they are cutting corners that much," he said of restaurants reluctant to switch, "I wouldn't really trust those guys to make me a plate of food anyway."
Restaurants in the city had never kicked too hard over taste considerations, but they had chafed at the idea that anyone should be telling them how to cook.
And there is still some question about whether the ingredients restaurants are using instead of trans fats are just as bad for you. Restaurants can comply by switching to a cooking oil high in saturated fat, which could clog your arteries almost as quickly.
The tougher transition on trans fats could come a year from now, when the city has ordered artificial trans fats out of all products, not just oils and spreads.
Experts say it may be more difficult to find a good replacement for partially hydrogenated vegetable shortenings, which give baked goods like cookies and crackers their characteristic texture.
"That is definitely a more challenging environment," said Bill McCullough, a marketing director for St. Louis-based Bunge Oils.
Alternatives are available, he said, but culinary researchers are still at work on something that will have the taste and texture of butter or lard and the shelf life of a hydrogenated product high in trans fats.
"We realize as an organization that it is just a matter a time before hydrogenation is gone," he said. Bunge has already stopped marketing products containing artificial trans fats, McCullough said.
"We decided it would be like marketing Marlboro Red cigarettes."
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:07:15 GMT
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Don't expect to see the calorie count for Burger King's Double Whopper with cheese on the menu anytime soon. Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's are among the chains planning to defy New York City's new rule that they begin posting calories on menus Sunday.
Other big fast food eateries like Taco Bell and KFC aren't saying whether they will comply, but with just days to go until the deadline, the menu boards in their Big Apple restaurants remain unchanged.
All are hoping a New York Restaurant Association lawsuit in federal court will get the new regulation thrown out. Meanwhile, the city won't fine anyone for violating it until October.
"We are not trying to avoid providing this information to customers," said Wendy's spokesman Denny Lynch. He noted that the company has made nutritional information available for 30 years on fliers and posters.
However, New York is the first city in the country to require certain fast food restaurants to list calorie counts next to menu items in type that is at least as large as the price.
Lynch says adding all those numbers will make menus impossible to read.
"You'll either have to have a Times Square-sized menu board, or it could look like a bad day at the eye doctor's office," said Jack Whipple, president of the National Council of Chain Restaurants."
Fast food chains also say they have been unfairly singled because the new rule only applies to restaurants that serve standardized portions and offer nutritional information voluntarily.
Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group, had a different take:
"They are afraid that when people see these eye-popping calorie numbers, they might switch to a smaller size," he said. "They feel it is gong to hurt sales."
For the record, that Double Whopper with Cheese will run you 990 calories, or more than half the recommended daily calories for an adult woman.
