masterfoods strange chocolate decision

Originally posted by Implosion

Originally posted by AccessDenied
What! I'm a chocoholic! I don't want to eat something from a calfs stomach in my chocolate bar! Thats disgusting!

I'm guessing you don't want to know what's used to colour m&ms red then.

I was too late.

Originally posted by Shar_Chi
I'd also point out red M&Ms contain a pigment obtained from the juice of dead beetles. Enjoy. en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 16/5/07 by Implosion]

Wha?? guh........

Ok I'm totally grossed out now.

Lol so they are going to add an animal product? Who cares i eat meat regularly so doesn't bother me.

Oh and yeah i had heard about the beetle one, again it doesn't bother me, it's natural afterall. Would you prefer a chemical synthetic?

One of my friends went vegan a few years ago and it is amazing how many animal byproducts are put into our food. Unless you know what to look for you have no idea what you are eating or drinking.

Originally posted by yeahright

I'll have a beer.

This was one of his finds, Beer and Wine are clarified using finings, traditionally finings could be egg whites, blood, milk, and Irish moss.

Modern finings are much more broad ranged and I won't list them all, you can find the info here, en.wikipedia.org...

This is my favorite one though, isinglass is from fish swimbladders en.wikipedia.org...

He ended up calling all of his favorite beer manufacturers to find out what he could drink. Luckily there are a quite a few vegan friendly beers.

Also on the list is gelatin which is used in a whole heap of candies and other products as well. Gelatin is made from animal connective tissue. en.wikipedia.org...

I personally don't sweat this kind of stuff, after my college years I'm pretty sure I could eat just about anything.

Originally posted by Cug
They always used rennet, They just switched to using natural rennet instend of one that was a genetically engineered monster.

This is good folks!

Besides what is a vegetarian doing eating milk chocolate anyway

Um, you are thinking vegan, not a regular vegetarian. Vegetarians can eat dairy and eggs. Vegans will not eat anything from an animal, including honey.

Vegetarians are far more aware of what goes into their food than your average person. By making the concious descision to become a vegetarian, you are already making a choice to pay alot more attention to what you eat.

Im a partial vegetarian. I won't eat red meat, poultry, pork, or fish at all, or any products containing stuff from such animals. I only eat shellfish, eggs, and some dairy as well as insect products. My reasons for this is that meat and fish seem to taste vile anymore. I started noticing it more when I moved t the UK, though I was begining to notice it in the states. I think its all the additives they feed the animals, and perhaps the conditions they are kept in thats making the meat taste more rotten. So I decided to kiss red meat and poultry goodbye, and recently decided to stop eating fish because it tastes too fishy, like its been made to overcompensate or something.

Im very aware of what goes into my bodies, and even before I became part veggie, I always read labels to see what was in food. Now Im even more aware of it. Even alot of vitamins cant be taken because they have animal gelatin in them.

I'd be happy to go back to eating meat if the industry stopped factory farming and feeding animals things they should not be eating, and let them graze and eat what is natural to them. Otherwise, I'll stick with Quorn.

[edit on 16-5-2007 by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf]

Originally posted by djohnsto77

Originally posted by Kacen
Wait, firstly, can someone please explain to me why this applies to Muslims and Jews? Last time I checked, Muslims and Jews could eat products made from cows. Its pigs they can't eat.

I think the problem with Jews is mixing meat with dairy.

Not sure why this would affect Muslims though, unless they have the same restriction.

It's called Halal. If the animal is not slaughtered Halal, they cannot eat it.

They cant eat pig because they consider it a dirty animal, but all other meat has to be killed Halal. Facing Mecca and with it's throat slit, and bled out alive.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

I'd be happy to go back to eating meat if the industry stopped factory farming and feeding animals things they should not be eating, and let them graze and eat what is natural to them. Otherwise, I'll stick with Quorn.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, I have to find my soapbox... ahhh there it is...

If that is what you want, why wait? There are farmers out there doing their best to supply people with exactly that and they are having a hard time just making a living.

The food industry will never change unless the consumers start making a stand (Like they did with organic foods..oh sure the industry foods are still crap but they are organic(c) )

What? whooooaaa Boom!

I just fell off my soapbox

Originally posted by Cug

Wait a minute, wait a minute, I have to find my soapbox... ahhh there it is...

What? whooooaaa Boom!

I just fell off my soapbox

Well why did you go and do that for?

I will not never-ever eat chocolate again, and that means m&m's too!

Originally posted by yeahright
How many people out there are familiar with castorium? It's contained in some perfumes and used as a food additive in some soft drinks. Usually lumped in with other ingredients as "artificial flavors".

Castorium is derived from the anal glands of beavers. Makes rennet sound pretty good, eh? Drink up.

I'll have a beer.

I'm still reeling from this! The cherry flavor I like is enhanced by...by...I can't even think it...
And I thought my husband was turned on by me...now I find out it was the castorium all along!

Well, re the chocolate decision...now the company can sell their reformulated bars and introduce a "specialty" bar for higher profit, the bar with the original ingredients only now costing 50% more.

Also, would it now be possible to eat a chocolate bar with rennet from a calf infected with mad cow disease? Or will the rennet come from China...beware the additives to the additives...

Thanks for the heads up! I never knew rennet could be used in chocolate, thought it was just cheese.
How rennet is made, according to Wikipedia:

Deep-frozen stomachs are milled and put into an extracting solution – in this solution the enzymes are extracted. The crude rennet extract is then activated by adding acid – the enzymes in the stomach are produced in an inactive pre-form and are activated by the stomach acid

Ewww...even if I did eat meat, I think I would have to pass on this.
Does anyone know why a coagulant is needed to produce chocolate?

I stopped eating big brand chocolate bars years ago, now I only purchase organic chocolate bars. They also taste a much much better...Anyway that is gross.

im vegetarian, going vegan and until i did, i didnt realise exactly what i was eating.....and im glad i made the switch. everyone should look at what is in their food products. in australia laws pertaining to the labeling of food products are dodgy, they dont have to label specific animal products and can kind of label it as 'natural flavour' or just swap it with a number like e345584

Originally posted by desertAlso, would it now be possible to eat a chocolate bar with rennet from a calf infected with mad cow disease?

That's always been possible though very unlikely given the strict controls on beef. You are in danger from Mad Cow only if you eat the brain of the cow or nervous system tissue. The type of rennet they use comes from calves raised for the veal industry:
en.wikipedia.org...

Or will the rennet come from China...beware the additives to the additives...

No telling. I'm not sure how much of an impact those chemicals will have on veal. I don't eat veal simply because I disagree with the whole process and treatment of the animals.

BTW, this appears to be a global decision and to apply to every Mars product.

Originally posted by Byrd
BTW, this appears to be a global decision and to apply to every Mars product.

can you provide a link for confirmation of that information as i could only find news stories saying it was only happening in the uk

thanks

edit - wikipedia also states

From 1 May in the UK, Mars products became unavailable to vegetarians, as the company started to use animal rennet as an ingredient. The Vegetarian Society asked UK vegetarians to register their protests with Mars and the story generated a lot of press.

implying that it only concerns uk products (or possibly that the rest of the world's products already contained the rennin). im sure plenty of people would like this clarified in & out of the uk

[edit on 17-5-2007 by justyc]

Just saw on SkyNews UK that after receiving a petition signed by 6000 people including Government MPs they have decided to go back to using the non-animal product...So much for the big industry ignoring the people comment...

Originally posted by CthulhuRising
Just saw on SkyNews UK that after receiving a petition signed by 6000 people including Government MPs they have decided to go back to using the non-animal product...So much for the big industry ignoring the people comment...

well that is great news for those that would buy their chocolate. it also shows that many more people than some imagine care about the contents of their food and are prepared to do something about it. sadly an awful lot of people just don't seem to care about what they eat.

it won't affect me anyway as i rarely eat sugary foods like chocolate and am not vegetarian either, but i'm glad that those whose choice to buy non-animal rennet content was about to become severely limited have won out on what seemed to be a stupid decision on behalf of the company

So M and M's uses a dye that in the UK is banned beacuse it is not recommended for children to eat it?

Why isn't this banned in the US?

reply to post by justyc


well, going back on their promise to stop their proposed use of the animal derived rennet, masterfoods are back in the news today for exactly the same reason...

mars starts using animal products

did they ever have any intention of changing their mind? did they publicly back down solely to save bad publicity in may. well, if they thought they got bad publicity before then i'm sure their going to receive much worse now for being out and out liars with no regard for customer wishes or their reputation