Eating a bagel sandwich can become a healthful experience with a new line of fat-free cream cheese products introduced recently by Alpine Lace Brands Inc. They`ll even lighten up those dips and hors d`oeuvres that make cocktail parties a calorie-loading experience.
Here`s the story behind how many of these fat-free cheese products came to be: It`s the story of Aly Gamay, 43, a native of Cairo, Egypt, who emigrated to the U.S. in 1979 and earned his doctorate in food science from Utah State University, in Logan.
Gamay joined Frigo Cheese Corp. in Green Bay, Wis., as a research development manager but became frustrated in his attempts to get the cheese industry to develop cheeses low in fat and cholesterol, something he had figured out how to do. So in 1987 he formed his own company, Gamay Foods Inc. in Franklin, Wis., with $10,000 he had saved to buy a home.
Using his technology and the help of family members, Gamay began selling fat-free cheese products under the name Cheese Smart. These were not artificial or analog cheeses but were made from Wisconsin milk, and they carried the United Dairy Industry Association`s ”Real” seal, used only on natural dairy products. Meanwhile, Gamay became an American citizen.
Cheese Smart products found a core of loyal customers looking for non-fat dairy items, and in 1990 Alpine Lace, a New Jersey company, bought Gamay`s process and brought him on board to oversee production.
When you compare Alpine Lace Free N` Lean Fat Free Cream Cheese to regular cream cheese, the difference in fat is astounding. Regular cream cheese has 10 grams of fat per 1-ounce serving of 100 calories, meaning it gets 90 percent of its calories from fat. The fat-free cheese contains less than 0.5 gram of fat for the same serving size, which has only 30 calories.
What about taste? Alpine Lace products are not as rich as regular cream cheese, but for some people it definitely is worth the sacrifice.
A chip off the old pretzel
When Nabisco Biscuit Co. introduced Mr. Phipps Pretzel Chips slightly more than a year ago, the low-fat snacks-made from pretzel dough to look like potato chips-became 1991`s best-selling pretzel in America.
Now Nabisco is debuting Mr. Phipps Tater Crisps, potato chips made like pretzels. In other words, they`re baked instead of fried in hot oil. That makes for less fat. Mr. Phipps potato chips have 120 calories and 4 grams of fat per ounce, compared with 10 grams of fat for regular potato chips and 6 grams for some light varieties.
There`s more news: The chips taste ”good.” At least that was the conclusion of several staff members who finished off two boxes in about 10 minutes.
But there`s a down side too. Those boxes-in Original, Sour Cream `N Onion and Bar-B-Que flavors-hold only 5 3/4 ounces, or approximately 127 chips. You easily could finish one before the end of the first quarter of a Bears game. Suggested retail price is $2.29, or almost 2 cents a chip. A 6-ounce bag of Ruffles Potato Chips, on the other hand, costs $1.49 (and who can count how many chips that is?).
How about some math?
While we`re talking about low-fat and non-fat-subjects most food manufacturers are addressing in the `90s-it is interesting to note there`s a difference between them.
The Oscar Mayer Foods Corporation for instance, has developed a new look for its Louis Rich brand of turkey products, including the Louis Rich Oven Roasted Turkey Breast luncheon meat. This is a good-tasting, handy product in a resealable 6-ounce package of six slices for $2.19. And it is labeled ”97 percent fat free.” When you examine the package nutrition label it says that 1 ounce of the turkey breast has 30 calories, 5 grams of protein, 330 milligrams of sodium and 0 grams of fat. Wow! Is this a no-fat meat product?
Well, not exactly. According to present labeling regulations if a product has less than 1 gram of fat per serving, the fat grams can be rounded off to 0. Since the front label says 97 percent fat free that must mean that there is 3 percent fat-3 percent fat calculated by weight, that is. Since 1 ounce equals 28.4 grams, 3 percent would be about 0.8 grams (the company says 0.7 grams). But if you compute it as a percentage of the 30 calories in that ounce of turkey breast it is more than 20 percent (1 gram of fat equals 9 calories), just enough for a ”low fat” rating under the proposed Food and Drug Administration regulations. That`s still pretty good since you are getting 5 grams of protein, but it`s not fat-free.
Tuna salad to go
Just like Charlie the Tuna, the StarKistmascot who for some strange reason always is trying to get caught, those food-marketing people are always thinking. In fact, the people at StarKist Seafood Co. have developed Charlie`s Lunch Kit: all you need to make your own tuna salad. The kit contains a 3 1/4- ounce, single-serve, pull-top can of white tuna in water, packets of mayonnaise and pickle relish, six whole-wheat crackers and a spoon. The stuff is enclosed in a two-part plastic container that opens into two bowls, one for draining off the tuna water and one for mixing up the salad.
”Our research showed that consumers prefer mixing fresh tuna salad themselves,” says Tom Brancky, StarKist marketing manager.
The kit, which sells for $1.29 for Chunk Light and $1.49 for Chunk White Albacore, needs no refrigeration and fits into a briefcase, lunch box or purse. It lacks only a hunk of lettuce to be perfect.
StarKist also notes that the packaging tries to be environmentally correct: The can is steel, the spoon is natural wood and the bowls are PET 1, the most recycled plastic. Of course, most schools and businesses don`t have steel and plastic recycling bins, so you`ll probably have to cart your detritus home to dispose of it properly.
What a crumb
The 7-ounce tubular carton of Chef Nashini`s Gourmet Seasoned Dijon Bread Crumbs looks just like a box of bread crumbs, until you punch out the plastic wedge in the top and take a whiff.
This is not just breading; it`s a spice, and a pungent one at that. There`s the aroma of Dijon mustard of course, but also ginger, Worcestershire, and do we sense some curry?
The seasoned crumbs, available for $2.29 at Treasure Island, Sunset Foods and specialty food stores on the North Shore, are made in Milwaukee by Richard Nashini, a former Italian restaurant chef who has been selling them in bulk to supermarket delis and the food service industry for 10 years. The seasoned bread crumbs also come in Sicilian and Cajun flavors and work as coatings, in salads, as casserole toppings, in meatballs or just as seasonings.
Skimpy Caesar setup
We looked at the pretty box of Et Tu Caesar, a ”Delicious Caesar Salad Mix,” and started salivating. After all, Caesar salad, invented in Mexico in 1924, is experiencing a nationwide reprise, and here were all the fixings. But then we read the fine print and opened the pretty box.
What you get for $1.99-from Linsey Foods Ltd. of Scarborough, Ontario-are packets of the following: 1/4 cup of a thick white dressing, 1/4 ounce of grated Parmesan cheese and 2/3 cup of bread croutons, or about 36 1-inch cubes of white, wheat and black bread. And, oh yes, 2 teaspoons of artificial bacon bits. All this would fit in a box half the size. To make the Caesar salad you supply one half head of Romaine lettuce.
The instructions say the ingredients will make one dinner-size salad or up to six side salads, but that`s stretching that romaine pretty thin. Et Tu Caesar is available at Cub Foods, Dominick`s and some Jewel stores. It is made in Canada, where it received an award as the best new product of the year.
Cookie test
The press release for Pepperidge Farm`s new line of Family Request Cookies says the company ”always has had a reputation for producing indulgent, upscale, specialty cookies-the type that adults stash away for solitary snacking.” It might have gone on to say, ”but not this time.”
Family Request cookies in Chocolate Chip, Cinnamon Sugar, Oatmeal and Peanut Butter flavors are formulated to appeal to a broad range of tastes from children to adults. We don`t know about children, but we set some of the packages out for staff members, and 24 hours later there still were cookies left.
The 10- to 10 1/4-ounce bags have a suggested retail price of $2.49 and are available everywhere.
