Kwantlen prepared for new trans fat rules

British Columbia’s new trans fat regulations, the first of their kind in Canada, went into affect Sept. 30. The new restrictions promise to reduce people’s risk of exposure to industrially produced trans fat in situations where they have limited ability to know what’s in their food.

These new regulations may greatly change the way many eating establishments around the province do business, but not here at Kwantlen. “It’s been campus policy for a long time now,” said Belinda Kaplan, Director of Food Services for the Surrey campus. “We switched our products over well before the regulations came into affect.”

Consumption of saturated or trans fat has been linked to numerous health issues including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Trans fat is responsible for an estimated 3,000 heart disease-related deaths in Canada each year according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC.

There are two kinds of trans fat, which occurs naturally in some meats like beef and lamb and in many dairy products. It’s also industrially produced, formed during hydrogenation, a process used to harden and stabilize liquid vegetable oils. It’s these industrially produced trans fats that the regulations announced by the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport in B.C. are targeting.

For the past three years, food services on campus at Kwantlen have been ahead of the trans fat curve, using reduced fat margarine, trans fat free muffin mix and trans fat free oils in all of the deep fryers.

B.C.’s new restrictions require all soft spreadable margarine and oil to be two per cent trans fat or less of the total fat content.

All foods stored, prepared, served and sold at food service establishments, including restaurants, cafeterias, educational and health care institutions, schools and delis, will be under scrutiny.

The new regulations will be monitored and enforced by environmental health officers as part of their routine food safety inspections.

According to Kaplan, Kwantlen will have no trouble meeting or exceeding the new requirements since preparations were already made prior to the B.C. government’s announcement of changes.