A few big chain restaurants such as Chipotle have begun posting calorie counts of their dishes on menu boards ahead of the anticipated regulation.

Fast Calorie Order Delayed Again
A federal appeals judge on April 23 delayed the enforcement of new New York City rules requiring calorie counts to be posted alongside prices in some restaurants, according to the New York Times. 

Some big chain restaurants such as Quiznos, Starbucks, Subway and Chipotle, however, already have began posting calorie counts of their dishes on menu boards.

If the city rule passes, any chain with at least 15 outlets nationwide would have to display calorie counts on menu boards, menus or food tags. The rules would apply to roughly 2,000 restaurants, or about 10 percent of the 23,000 in the city.

From Cow Pies to Clear Skies
From the “buy local” trend to the the demand for energy-efficient equipment and facilities, every segment of the industry is seeking more and better ways to be environmentally responsible and sustainable.

In an inspiring example of finding a greener way to do business, the Crave Brothers Dairy Farm and its cheesemaking enterprise, Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, have a sophisticated, computer-controlled anaerobic digestion system that generates electricity – enough to run its rural Wisconsin farm and cheese plant and power up to 120 homes – that runs on organic waste from their 750 pampered and productive Holsteins. 

Anaerobic (oxygen-free) digestion is a biological process in which microorganisms break down organic waste in a process that ultimately produces gas, mainly methane with some carbon dioxide. This gas can be burned just like natural gas, thus generating energy.  

On 1,700 acres of rolling land an hour west of Milwaukee, the Craves grow soybeans, corn and alfalfa to use as feed for the herd. Each cow produces about 3,300 gallons of milk annually.  

The digester helps manage the farm’s manure, provides clean, renewable energy for the farm, and produces excess electricity, which Clear Horizons sells on the electrical grid.  What’s more, the digester reduces odor from the manure, and provides some saleable byproducts. Visit www.cravecheese.com for more information.

Army Chefs Win Challenge 
The U.S. Army culinary team was victorious against the other top chefs from the four other branches of the military – Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard – in the Freedom Chefs Challenge culinary competition during the 2008 American Culinary Federation (ACF) Western Regional Conference, April 19 at the Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City.

The U.S. Army culinary team of Rene Marquis, CEC, CCE, PCEC, AAC, and David Turcotte, CEC, was declared the winning team of the Freedom Chefs Challenge for their array of diverse and fine-cuisine.

Five, two-person teams engaged in a two-hour culinary-style hand-to-hand combat cooking competition and were judged by a panel of military generals and elite ACF chefs on taste and creativity. For more information, visit www.acfchefs.org.

Call for Food Safety Rehaul
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) released a new report this spring identifying major gaps in the nation’s food safety system, including obsolete laws, misallocation of resources and inconsistencies among major food safety agencies. “Our goal should be reducing the number of Americans who get sick from foodborne illness,” said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., executive director of TFAH. “But we can’t adequately protect people from contaminated foods if we continue to use 100-year-old practices. We need to bring food safety into the 21st century. We have the technology. We’re way past due for a smart and strategic upgrade.”

Approximately 76 million Americans – one in four – are sickened by foodborne diseases each year.  Of these, an estimated 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die.  Medical costs and lost productivity due to foodborne illnesses in the U.S. are estimated to cost $44 billion annually.  A 2007 public opinion poll conducted by TFAH found that 67 percent of Americans are worried about food safety, and that public concerns about food safety rank higher than Americans’ concerns about a biological or chemical attack and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

TFAH calls for a series of actions to help the nation modernize the food safety system by using strategic inspection practices and state-of-the-art surveillance. Although many of the recommendations are focused on government actions, the report finds that fixing food safety will require a collaborative effort by food companies and government.   

The full report is available on TFAH’s Web site at www.healthyamericans.org. For more information, view the basic food safety fact sheet.