Dr. Ahmad Sakr, Director IFANCA, To Speak At The HALAL FOOD 2008 Conference In Istanbul

The organizing committee of GIMDES is holding the International Halal Food Conference (HALAL FOOD 2008) on 24 February, 2008. The venue for this one day conference is the Istanbul Feshane International Fair Congress and Cultural Center. The conference is a strategic initiative aimed at:

• maximizing opportunities for Turkey as an exporter to Halal importing markets
• promoting Turkey as a highly competent producer and manufacturer of halal products
• engendering confidence in consumers and governments of importing countries about the authenticity and high quality of Turkey's halal products
• facilitating the flow of investment funds from halal importing countries to Turkey

Nutri Pharmaceuticals Research Inc. (NPRI), a leading developer and marketer of powdered nutritional ingredients, has received Halal certification from IFANCA for the company's O2P^TM family of oil powders. According to NPRI president and CEO, Godfrey Yew, "Achieving Halal certification is critical to the future growth of our firm. Halal certification is further proof of our commitment to providing the highest quality, purity and consistency in our O2P powdered oils to the food and nutraceutical industries."

Nutri Pharmaceuticals Research Inc. (www.o2pus.com) provides a wide range of powdered oils for functional food; food supplement; pharmaceutical; cosmetic; pet food and animal feed applications. The company is one of a select few to be awarded the prestigious Nutrition Business Journal "Product Merit Award" for its patent-pending O2P™ Powderization process.

Avoiding Trans Fat In Our Diet

Our New Year's resolutions to lose weight may well be forgotten as Valentines Day approaches with promises of candy, chocolates and desserts. And if it tastes good, it's probably full of sugar and fat. Foods that contain too much sugar and the wrong kinds of fats can cause blood vessels to thicken and grow constricted leading to myriad health problems. We can't avoid all fat without depriving ourselves of the pleasures of good eating, however we can avoid trans fat in our diet.

But just what are these trans fats?

Trans and cis fatty acids: Fatty acids, components of all fats and oils, with similar molecular and structural formulas exist in different geometric forms. The cis form is the natural form and can be easily metabolized by the body. Trans forms of fatty acids are generally man made, when oils such as soybean oil are partially hydrogenated to stabilize them against oxidation. Trans forms are suspected of being involved in coronary heart disease including atherosclerosis. Trans fats increase the amount of fatty plaque in our blood vessels and may also stiffen one's arteries. Researchers at Harvard University believe that trans fats alone are now responsible for the deaths of at least 30,000 Americans every year. Many popular foods such as French fries, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, doughnuts, cookies and cakes contain large amounts of trans fat. All of these products can be made with healthier fats. An increasing number of companies are reducing or eliminating trans fats from their products. When investigators at the National Academy of Sciences tried to determine how much trans fat a person should eat, they came up with a surprising conclusion: none. As of January 2006, a federal rule requires that the amount of trans fat be declared on all processed food labels containing fat.

Answers:1b, 2a, 3e, 4d, 5c

As you may be aware, the Islamic calendar, called the Hijra calendar (based on the year of migration of the Muslims from Makkah to Madina) is a lunar-based calendar. As such, the Islamic year is about 354 days long, so the Islamic dates move through the seasons.

Each month officially starts with the sighting of the new moon crescent. With advances in astronomy, we are able to calculate those days but when it comes to official events and holidays such as Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr, etc., many communities and Muslim states rely upon the actual sighting, so the dates listed here may not coincide with the actual day the events are celebrated.