OTTAWA — After two-and-a-half years of deliberation, the Sodium Working Group has mapped out guidelines for foodservice providers to follow to reduce salt output in Canada.

Health experts recommend that the average person consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day, but reports show that Canadians ingest almost three times that amount — in large part due to added sodium in processed foods.

With foodservice operators onboard, the task force aims to reduce the Nutrition Facts table's "daily value" for sodium from 2,400 mg to 1,500 mg, mandate standardized serving sizes as the basis for reporting nutrition information, require restaurants to label menu items and set sodium- reduction targets for food.

ELORA, Ont. — More than 130 Canadian restaurants will pay tribute to Canada Food Day, a celebration of Canuck food, on Saturday, July 31.

The special day, founded in 2003 as The World’s Longest Barbecue, by culinary activist Anita Stewart of Elora, Ont., it was created to support Canadian beef after the closing of the American border to Canadian beef exports.

At the time, Stewart asked her friends, including the membership of Cuisine Canada of which she is founder, to “fire up their barbecues” and join in a day-long celebration from coast-to-coast in support of Canadian beef and the country’s rich food history.

TORONTO — According to the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA), a recent survey it conducted shows that, although the invoice pertaining to the G20 Summit its looking to send the federal government will be hefty, it will only represent a portion of what Toronto restaurateurs say they lost during the meeting of world leaders late last month.

Heading into the G20 summit, ORHMA put an assistance program into place for members that might be affected. Commenting on the anticipatory nature of the program, ORHMA president and CEO, Tony Elenis stated: “As you know we were proactively talking to government for compensation before all this happened last December. We needed to ensure a compensation process for our members was in place prior to the G20 summit. We wanted every member to have the piece of mind to know that ORHMA would be there to help them after the summit was over.”

CALGARY — Canadian beef, and more specifically some of the underutilized cuts, will be on display this week at the American Chef’s Federation (ACF) National Conference, running from Aug. 2 to 5 at the Anaheim Marriott in California.

Canada’s Beef Information Centre (BIC) is on the agenda, with a presentation titled “Lean on Beef – Culinary Options in Challenging Economic Times,” which will showcase how Canadian beef can evolve to meet the changing needs of diners in various menu applications.