Health committee  If I may answer that, in the Royal Society of Chemistry paper that just came out, we did a clinical trial showing that it actually had no effect on the lipid-protein metabolism. It behaved such that in a controlled release of lipids, it lowered the insulin response in the body. It was interesting.

Health committee  It could take a year.

Health committee  You can use any oil you want and make your constituents happy. You can use soybean if you're from the east. You can use canola from the west. And you can use both of them if you're from the Far East or something like that, I don't know. One issue on which I have not heard from any of you is the trade issue, which in this case is gigantic.

Health committee  Yes, it is.

Health committee  It depends on the legislation.

Health committee  Here's an interesting thing about exactly what you said. The food industry is not going to do absolutely anything if you don't regulate. It's a very low-margin industry. They're trying to make do. I work with many of them. They're just not going to do it. When they say “one year's time”, they don't even listen to you, because one year's time is way into the future.

Health committee  Commercially? It will be in four months.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  If everybody likes it— which is a big “if”—if they like the cookies and the biscuits, then that's a very good question. That will be the limiting factor in terms of how much it can be ramped up. But if it's welcomed, I believe it will take probably a year and a half to get to the levels where it could be competitive with imports and other fats.

Health committee  The product is 60% oil and 40% water, so the price is driven basically by the oil, the water, and the monoglyceride, which is a common structuring agent used in the manufacture of shortening. The overall value is actually competitive with palm fat, not that—

Health committee  With palm oils. Those are the shortenings produced by Crisco and the others. In terms of price, it is comparable. Again, though, the question still remains about whether everybody likes it for every single application.

Health committee  First of all, thank you very much for inviting me. This is my first time here, so I'm really excited. This is like being in a chocolate store or something like this. I find it very exciting.

Health committee  I'm sure, but for now it's great. I'm a professor and Canada research chair at the University of Guelph. I've been there for 16 years. My area of work is in the structure of food materials, particularly fats. I study fat. Of course, chocolate is mostly fat, so that's one good fat, but there are many other fats that may give us trouble.

Health committee  —but what it can be called is a trans-fat-free or a zero-trans shortening alternative. For 10 grams of this material—I'd better speak quickly—you only get half a gram of saturated fat, and there is no trans fat. I can put on the label that they're low in saturated fats, free of trans fatty acids, and a source of omega-3 fatty acids because they're made with canola oil.