Unfortunately, we have been informed of some "Grass Fed Tallows" that are not listing any trans fat on their jars and people have asked us what is going on with that. Normally we only talk about our products but since we get this question every so often, and seeing as how we don't do much but think about fat, we have taken the liberty to speculate on why this would be. Again this is speculation but we think you'll find it interesting none-the-less. 1.) The tallow in question may not be 100% grass fed. If it is not rendered in a USDA facility there is no telling what shenanigans are going on so we suggest you watch out. 2.) Perhaps the tallow is grass fed but the cattle ate a lot of silage or haylage. This is still technically "grass fed" but is lesser quality food source than fresh grass and may not allow the cattle to create as much natural trans fat during digestion. 3.) It could be that other grass fed tallows do in fact have 0.5 grams of trans fat but are not listing it! How can that be you may ask? Two ways. This is a bit detailed so for the love of fat pay attention! First thing to understand is that there is an established database that food companies can pull from for certain products when submitting their labels for review to the USDA. This is done so that food companies do not have to send their products to a lab for testing of well-established single ingredient products. So does this database have Tallow? You betcha. But here's the kicker, the national database Nutritional Panel for Tallow does NOT have 0.5 grams per serving listed! This is because the national database is using GRAIN FINISHED TALLOW AS THE REFERENCE! As discussed earlier, grain-fed cattle have less naturally occurring trans fat and as a result, will have less than 0.5 grams of trans fat, and therefore the company is able to claim 0 grams trans fat. If a company doesn't know or care much about their products and are simply trying to capitalize on the "Fat Trend" they could just be using the national database having never done any testing at all. This would be quite disrespectful to the consumer and to the greatness that is Grass Fed Tallow if you ask us. 4.) There is a 4th and more sinister reason that we have thought of as well. A company could, in theory, do their own testing and discover that their fat does indeed have 0.5 grams of trans fat but then decide to use the Nutritional Panel from the national database anyway! Why would they do this? Simple, because the media and the USDA have done a terrible job educating the public on the differences between NATURAL trans fat and ARTIFICIAL trans fat, therefore perhaps a company would elect to use the national database Nutritional Panel that has 0 grams trans fat thinking (probably quite correctly) that the average customer would be scared away by seeing 0.5 grams of trans fat. If a company were to do this it would be pretty deceptive (and if they are willing to deceive their customers about that, what else aren't they telling you?) So, yeah we have probably gone off the deep end and far afield into tin foil hat land with this one, but in truth we wouldn't be surprised to find out this was the case for some companies. In theory we could do this too, but rather than hide the this information we take it as an opportunity to educate and inform fat lovers! We do full fatty acid profile on all our fats and we were quite relieved to find that we had over 0.5 grams of natural trans fat so that we could show this off with pride!

What do your animals eat?

Hopefully, this is the first question you looked for when you came to our site. Nothing is more important to an animal's quality of life than what they eat and how they are raised. For this reason we only use Pasture-Raised animals. The cows we use only eat grass and the ducks and pigs eat what they find in pasture in addition to their non-GMO feed. Please note that we are not certified non-GMO since we use small family farms as our source and many of these farmers can not afford, or simply do not wish, to go through the certification process.

So what's in the feed you ask? It's a high quality non-GMO mix of grains and soy. We realize some people are concerned about soy in particular because soy contains isoflavonoids which are biologically active compounds such as phytoestrogens. Some researchers believe these have a deleterious effect on the human body while other researchers will cite studies which claim that soy isoflavonoids are in fact beneficial. (Funny thing this food science.) For what it's worth, the founders of Fatworks try to avoid soy in their diet. That's why it was a happy day indeed when we received the email from the lab which stated, "it doesn't look like there are any "isoflavonoids" in the duck fat." A little known fact is that the isoflavonoids, it seems, are absorbed in the muscle meat and possibly the organs, but not the fat! The same principle applies for grain proteins such as gluten. Gluten is NOT absorbed into the fat of animals. Therefore our fats are, of course, gluten free.

We would like to stress once again that all the farmers we source from state that the soy or grains they use are non-GMO. Again, these are PASTURED ducks, pigs and cows. If you know anything about standard farming practices you know this is very rare indeed. Unlike the vast majority of ducks and pigs raised in the U.S., the animals we source feed on true pasture which provides them grass, grubs, clover and anything else they would eat in nature, making for a much more rounded fatty acid profile. Conceptually we would love, love, love to rid soy and even grains from all animal food supply, but this would literally starve the animals on pasture. It is currently only possible to feed without grain supplementation on very, very small farms, most of which are not USDA certified.

We thought long and hard about what we would permit in the feed of our products and basically it came down to this: We were not going to let the "perfect be the enemy of the good". Our mission is and has always been, to provide the best fat possible with the resources available. We created Fatworks to provide people with a healthier and better tasting alternative to trans fats and highly oxidizable industrialized seed/vegetable oils such as corn oil, sunflower seed oil, canola oil, etc. and we believe that we are making a difference. More people are starting to cook with REAL oil again for the first time in two generations, you know, back before heart disease and diabetes were epidemic and before... whoops, we got a bit off track there. Sometimes we get a little carried away when we talk about traditional fat, especially when our supporters know and care enough to ask the right questions.

Are your Products "Organic"?

We  have several Certified" Organic products, but we also have several Pasture Raised products that we feel are as good or better, so for fat's sake, please read on! When it comes to say, an apple, we understand that having an organic certification is a great way to quickly know if a product meets a certain level of quality. However, we think the USDA falls short on their overall standards for certain organic certification. They believe for example that a bird raised in a cage can somehow be living an "organic" life. We do not agree. What we DO believe is in our farmers. We search for farmers who have standards that we believe exceed the USDA in every way. The animals we use are Pasture-Raised, Hormone-Free, Antibiotic-Free, Chemical-Free, and are raised by farmers doing it right! So even though we can't say that we sell organic lard, organic tallow or organic duck fat, if you know much about duck and pig farming you will know that Fatworks products are FAR, FAR beyond standard. For us it comes down to making the healthiest lard, healthiest tallow and healthiest duck fat. To this end we believe in our farmers, not the government.

Please note that we are not trying to disparage true organic farmers in any way. There are some small, and even some large companies who are organic and deserve your full support, however those companies are quickly becoming the minority. In fact, it is becoming clear that organic labeling no longer represents the small farms that it was designed to promote and instead has become, for the most part, a marketing tool for "Big Food" and "Big Agriculture". As this eye opening article shows, major corporations, and not small organic farmers, have come to dominate the boards that set the organic standards.

Has ‘Organic’ Been Oversized?

Sorry for the rant but hopefully you get the picture.

What is the shelf life of my Tallow, Duck Fat or Leaf Lard? Can I reuse them? Where do I store my premium fats?

Congratulations you found our most popular question.

NOTE: Always use a clean utensil when scooping the fat from your jar. Introducing food into the jar can cause "nasties" in a pretty short order.

Pasture Raised Duck Fat: Keep in Refrigerator. Pastured Raised Duck Fat will last about 4-6 months (but it rarely stays around that long.)

Pasture Raised Leaf Lard: Keep in Refrigerator. Lard will last 12-18 months in the fridge.

Grass Fed Beef Tallow: Keep in Pantry. You can keep in the fridge but it will turn rock hard and then you will need to give it a hot water bath (or microwave it if you are into that sort of thing.) Once it's slightly melted it will be "spoonable" and ready for you to enjoy. Tallow is naturally shelf stable for years.

You can freeze your fat for an even longer shelf life, years in fact.

How do I filter my fat for multiple uses and can I use the same procedure for the Tallow, Leaf Lard and Duck Fat?

All of our fats can be filtered several times. If you fried your food and wish to reuse your fat you should follow these procedures:

-Make sure that the oil is hot enough so that the fat is liquid but cool enough that it will not burn you.

-Find a clean jar (glass is best) and strain the fat through a cheesecloth or, if you have a bit more time and patience, use a paper coffee filter.

Remember, there is no exact number of times we can recommend that you reuse your oil. There are simply too many variables, so use your good Fatworker judgment.

A few factors which can help determine the reusability of your oils are:

1. Heat of oil. The hotter you heat your oil the less times you will be able to reuse.
2. The amount of time you are using oil. The longer you use your oil the less uses you will get.
3. What you are cooking is very important. For example, frying plain vegetables will keep the oil much cleaner than if you fry foods that are heavily coated in batter or flour.

Check your oil before you reuse. If there is an unusual smell or color, dispose.

Are Tree Nuts, Soy, Peanuts or Gluten in the facility where the fats are processed or jarred?

Yes, however if you are allergic to those let us put your mind at ease. We use a shared facility but we never share the facility with anyone else the day that we render. Here's how it works... Let's say that a soup company was making a soup on Monday, well, after they are done making their soup the kitchen is required to sanitized all the kettles and surface areas and remove all product from the kitchen area. If the next day Fatworks is doing a rendering of Leaf Lard, the kitchen is REQUIRED to sanitize the kettles and surfaces before beginning the rendering. So, in short, the whole kitchen is sanitized TWICE before we do anything in the kitchen. If you are worried about cross contamination it is highly unlikely!

Dang! The jar lid is totally stuck, what can I do?

Those healthy fats giving you a healthy forearm workout? Means you probably got a bit of fat in the threads of your jar. Running the lid and jar under hot water for a minute should do the trick. You can also purchase one of our Fatworks jar grips. After all there's a reason we make them.

How do you dispose of used fat?

Restaurants recycle theirs so you can too. It can be cleaned and used in the production of biodiesel fuel. Many municipalities will now accept cooking oil for this recycling purpose. You may even find a friendly restaurant that will accept your used fat and include it with their oil recycling. If circumstances make recycling difficult for you then put it in a sealed non-recyclable container and throw it in the trash. (Not recommended).

Where does your product originate?

From farms that we know and trust to do it right! We then render and filter all of our products in Colorado or Oregon. As an aside, we love the idea of sourcing locally but we love making the best fat possible more. At times these two noble ideals conflict. When they do, making the best quality fat products always trumps sourcing locally.

Can I feed it to my pet?

Only if you love them. Dogs and cats adore Grass Fed Tallow, Pastured Duck Fat and Pastured Leaf Lard. It's natural that they would. It's well known that cats and dogs in the wild always go for the fatty bits first.

Here's what we recommend you do. Cut back a bit on your pet's food then add a tablespoon or two of Fatworks Grass Fed Tallow to the mix and you'll have a very happy friend. We have a customer who wrote us, "I've mixed Tallow into our cat's food and her coat went from being dull to shiny and jet black (like a shampoo commercial!) If you have a pet story of your own please let us know.

ORDERING

Is local pick-up available?

We no longer offer local pick-up. Sorry about that. You can however go to the "FAT FINDER" link on our home page and there you will find which local stores are cool enough to sell our traditional cooking oils.

I purchased my product "Pre-order". What does this mean and when will I get my order?

On some of our products we may be slightly back-ordered. We don't want to say sold out because we are constantly rendering new batches, however if you order something on a pre-order you will have to wait 2-4 weeks. We generally run our pre-orders as a sale to help ease the pain of waiting.

Do you ship outside of the US?

If you will pay for the shipping we will try and ship it to you. We have had great success shipping to our Fatworkers in Canada, but we must be honest, it is not cheap to ship our orders outside the U.S. It's best to get some friends together and purchase in bulk. Just contact us and we can try to make some special arrangements because we're cool like that. (Anything to spread the fat!)

Where do we sell our fats?

Currently we are selling our pure premium products at www.fatworks.com and in stores throughout the US. Our "FAT FINDER" link on our home page lists the stores and locations that sell our traditional cooking oils.

MISC