A restaurant chain in Quebec has cooked up a reputation no other in North America can claim: its menu is now 100 per cent trans fat-free.
Three years ago, the Pacini chain of Italian restaurants calculated that one-third of 225 ingredients on its menu contained some level of artificial trans fat. So when head chef Frederic Chabot got a call from his boss suggesting they go trans fat-free, he balked.
"I told him it was impossible because trans fats are everywhere," he recalls.
But Chabot agreed to give it a try for one simple reason.
"We knew that this product was making people sick, so it's irresponsible to serve it."
Trans fats are considered a health hazard because they raise LDL-cholesterol ('bad' cholesterol) levels, lower levels of HDL (good cholesterol), and raise the incidence of heart disease.
Overhauling the menu cost half a million dollars, but they contacted suppliers to ask for their ingredient lists, and eliminated the supplies that contained unnecessary trans fat.
For example, they got rid of a pizza dough because it used shortening, which contains trans-fat laden hydrogenated oil.
They got rid of salad toppings such as croutons that contained trans fat, and substituted their own homemade croutons, with olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs.
To make sure they did it right, they enlisted the help of clinical nutrition and cardiology specialists from the Centre hospitalier de l'Universit� de Montr�al (CHUM). Dr. Guy Leclerc, head of the Department of Cardiology and associate research professor at the CHUM agreed to review the menu and find the trans fats. But he laid out one clear condition.
"There was no negotiation, no cutting corners here. It had to be at a level that was undetectable," says Leclerc.
So, when the chefs thought they had met the challenge of eliminating trans fats from their menus and someone took a closer look at the minestrone soup and found it contained 4/10,000th of a gram of trans fat, the recipe had to be changed.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, such a menu overhaul has never been done before. And they're impressed with how far the restaurant chain was willing to go to cut out the trans fats.
"Even though we told them there'd be a minimum level likely allowable, they said if it's not good they'll take it out. And they did," recalls Heart and Stroke Foundation CEO Sally Brown.
The chain's customers are gobbling up the changes and saying the taste hasn't changed. And Pacini's owners are hoping the changes will be good for their customers' health -- and keep them coming back for more.
