Thank you very much, and good afternoon, everyone.
I would also like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before you today to allow for comments on behalf of Canada's bakers regarding trans fats and the industry's efforts with regard to trans fat replacers.
I have prepared a brief, and my oral comment will speak to the points contained in it. I would just like to make one acknowledgement. There is a slight omission in the brief with regard to a description of fats under melting points. I will make that adjustment, and then send the revision to the clerk, in both French and English.
By way of introduction, the Baking Association of Canada is a not-for-profit trade association representing some 2,500 commercial, independent retail, and in-store bakery operators nationwide. BAC members produce two streams of products: breads and rolls; and what we call indulgence products, such as cakes, pastries, cookies, icings, etc. Baking is an approximately $4 billion industry, directly employing some 50,000 workers nationwide.
On the subject of trans fats, BAC supports the orderly removal of trans-fat-containing ingredients from the marketplace. I would expand on what we mean by “orderly”, by adding that to meet this objective bakers require trans alternatives that have the needed functionality requirements, are safe, and are readily available in the marketplace.
In support of this, BAC members have been working with their industry suppliers on trans fat alternatives for a number of years. A lot of progress has been made with specific products, but there remains significant functional and supply barriers with trans fat alternatives for certain bakery products in which a hard fat is required.
BAC also believes that a long-term solution to trans fat is required in which trans fat ingredients will be replaced by functional low trans fat, low saturate fat alternatives. BAC views the replacement of trans fat with high saturated fat, which also contributes to coronary heart disease, as an undesirable solution. BAC also believes that governments have an important role to play in finding solutions to the trans fat challenge. These solutions should include activities such as funding of oilseed research to produce varieties and processes that result in ingredients with reduced or no trans fats.
To understand the challenge faced by bakers on replacing trans fats, I would like to take a few minutes to talk about baking and why bakers use fats. To begin with, baking is not cooking. Baking is a science. Baking is a series of chemical reactions initiated by specific combinations of ingredients in specific quantities and processes, such as rest time, lamination, or heating, to achieve a desired product outcome.
One does not ad lib in baking. Changes to the ingredients or processes will alter the chemical reaction, resulting in a different outcome, sometimes quite catastrophically. Anybody who has ever baked a cake that didn't rise or bread that didn't rise knows what I mean by that. Additionally, the chemical reaction of baking can be negatively influenced by external factors such as ambient room temperature, humidity, and elevation.
Fats play a very important role in baking. Bakers use a variety of fats for different purposes, again, to achieve differing product outcomes. These fats include liquid oil, such as canola or soya; and hard fats, such as lard, beef tallow, butter, margarine, shortening, including hydrogenated vegetable shortenings; and tropical fats, such as palm. No one fat has all the characteristics bakers may require, and therefore bakers may use these fats separately, or in combination, depending on the product characteristics and desired outcome.
In our brief, I have provided a more detailed explanation of the differing roles of fats in baking.
In the quest for trans fat alternatives, the differing fat characteristics means that a one-size-fits-all approach is unrealistic and bakers will require a variety of alternatives to meet specific product needs.
With regard to trans fat replacers, Canada's bakers have been both challenged in certain product areas and leaders in others. In the breads and rolls category, these products have been essentially trans fat free since the late-1990s, as bakers switched over to the use of healthier liquid canola and soya oil.
In the production of indulgence products, Canada's bakers have been testing a variety of trans fat alternatives, where a hard fat, partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening, was the norm. Some progress has been made in utilizing liquid oils in some applications for muffins and cakes; however, the primary industry alternative, when a hard fat is required, is a palm oil shortening, used extensively in laminated dough. Butter is also a consideration, but due to functionality limitations, it's primarily used in smaller bakery operations.
These alternatives have not been perfect substitutes and have had negative product outcomes, such as a lack of variation in cakes, dryness, and a lack of stability with icing, cookies, and pie crusts. However, the most significant challenge faced is in finding viable trans alternatives for the production of puff pastry. Currently available low trans palm alternatives are simply unworkable as they lack the functionality.
The lack of functionality was nicely summarized by one of our members who was struggling with finding trans alternatives for his icings: try constructing a building with 30% less cement in your mortar. For those interested in the full technical explanation of the company's challenges, I refer to our brief.
In addition to finding a lack of functionality in currently available trans alternatives, bakers have growing anxiety about the healthiness of these alternatives. The palm shortening alternatives are extremely high in saturated fats, at approximately 50%. Bakers are understandably confused by the apparent reversal on the use of high saturated fats, as for decades they were told that high saturated fat products were to be avoided, a message that continues to be reinforced today, as referenced in the recently released Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. Bakers are concerned about the reaction of health professionals to and consumers' acceptance of an increase in saturated fat in their products.
With regard to the task force report, BAC supports the work of the Trans Fat Task Force and we are pleased that the task force report recognizes the challenge faced by bakers. In our brief, we have offered a number of observations on these recommendations, many of which appear in the report itself. Observations, we understand, will be considered as part of any regulatory review.
I would, however, wish again to stress three specific points. Bakers do not have viable trans alternatives for a number of bakery products, as I said, a factor identified by the task force in its recognition of bakers' having specific challenges with trans alternatives. Bakers have significant concerns regarding consumers' and health professionals' acceptance of increased saturated fat consumption that will result from the use of many of the currently available trans alternatives. I would also add—and Sally touched on it, and I didn't take exception to the mom and pop comment —that small and medium-sized bakeries face the prospect of timely and costly reformulation of their products and possible capital expenditures for new equipment.
In conclusion, BAC and its members support the removal of trans fat ingredients from the marketplace. In order to do so, bakers require trans alternatives that have been proven safe, meet product functionality requirements, are low in trans and saturated fats, and are readily available in the marketplace.
Thank you.