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Masterfoods puts animal product in chocolate - Mars, Snickers, Maltesers etc

miniConvert

miniConvert

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 4, 2006
3,264
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Kent, UK - the 'Garden of England'.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6653175.stm

I actually heard this on the radio the other day. Basically:

Masterfoods chocolate confectionary, including the massively popular Mars bars and Maltesers, but also most of their other snacks including Twix, has until now been suitable for vegetarians.

Masterfoods said it had started to use animal product rennet to make its chocolate products.

Masterfoods said the change was due to it switching the sourcing of its ingredients and the admission was a "principled decision" on its part.

The Vegetarian Society said the company's move was "incomprehensible".
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What's rennet?
Rennet, a chemical sourced from calves' stomachs, is used in the production of whey.

It will now also be found in Bounty, Minstrels and Milky Way products, and the ice cream versions of all Masterfoods' bars.
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Ok. So even at my local Sainsburys almost all of the cheese can still be produced with vegetarian-friendly rennet, but due to something as trivial as a change in supplier Masterfoods confectionary now contains 'a chemical sourced from calves' stomachs'?!?

Sorry if this all seems a bit abstract. I can imagine that most people probably don't give a damn. In fact, there may even be vegetarians reading this thinking 'you know, it's a chocolate bar, and I'm still going to eat it'. But don't you agree that it's completely crazy that a completely vegetarian set of products, all massively popular in the UK, contain an animal product from 1st May? Don't you also think it's out of line that Masterfoods didn't let us know this was the case for two weeks after the new products went on sale?

I hate to quote the vegetarian society, but I think they've summed it up quite well:
The Vegetarian Society said it was "extremely disappointed".

"At a time when more and more consumers are concerned about the provenance of their food, Masterfoods' decision to use non-vegetarian whey is a backward step," it said in a statement.

"Mars products are very popular with young people and many will be shocked to discover that their manufacture now relies on the extraction of rennet from the stomach lining of young calves," it added.
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:(
 
Ah well, yet another chocolate manufacturer to boycott (I still haven't forgiven Cadbury's for lying about the salmonella). With any luck Mars will get a 20% drop in sales and they'll reverse this stupid step.
 
Sign me up for the " I don't care group"


Well...I still kind of do. It is a bummer for Vegitarians, but who knows how far this news will go. Possible some vegiatarns will never know
 
miniConvert said:
I was kinda thinking that. I love Maltesers but I wont be eating them anymore. The unnecessary introduction of a chemical sourced from a calf's stomach is just a bit too gross for me!

All in the name of cutting costs, no doubt.
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When you remember just how much confectionary still has gelatin in it, it's not that surprising. Pretty disgusting though when you think about it. I'm just hoping the Snickers bar I ate over the Bank Holiday weekend was old stock.

pukech4.gif


zap2 said:
but who knows how far this news will go. Possible some vegiatarns will never know
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I've had people e-mailing me and telling me this news since yesterday. Believe me, everyone who knows a vegetarian is making sure they get told.
 
dynamicv said:
Ah well, yet another chocolate manufacturer to boycott (I still haven't forgiven Cadbury's for lying about the salmonella). With any luck Mars will get a 20% drop in sales and they'll reverse this stupid step.
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I doubt that would happen. I'm also in the "I don't care" group.

The reason is because I don't believe anybody owes their customers anything for the life of existence of that product. Nobody ever geared these products towards vegetarians. Not like they had advertising aiming towards the "for vegetarian" crowd. I certainly never knew whether their product was vegetarian or not, and I'm not sure if they ever promised anything. It's their product. If nobody likes the change, then nobody would buy the product. However, in this case, I don't think many people will notice or care, and the market won't be any less profitable than it is now.
 
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So what the crap? Why does a chocolate company need to announce their change in products they use? If a vegetarian wants to know if a product is "animal free" well they can ask the company and find out.
 
Darned.

Rennet was my excuse for not liking cheese. I for one am not going to tell my friends they started using it to make maltesers.
 
Well I'm not vegetarian, although I do have sympathies with those who are vegetarian due to their views on the cruelty to animals etc and as such, I'm not going to buy any more of their products. There's plenty of other companies who don't use these animal extracts and their products taste good too.
 
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You know...I'll probably avoid it for a while, but only because the last thing I wanted to know was that candybar I am eating might have come from calve's stomach. :rolleyes:
 
Well sign me up for the "I care list" even though I am not a vegetarian.

I care because I would like a food company to let me know if say they use say for example Trans-fats or not.

I am always amazed as to the amount of stuff that goes into foods. Can't they just leave chocolate as it is and not use animal byproducts, or salt, or corn syrup, or carnauba wax, or resinous glaze, or artificial colourings.
 
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To put this in perspective, animal source rennet is processed from the 4th stomachs of calves that have been slaughtered for veal. You may legitimately object to veal production in general, but don't imagine that the rennet is being extracted from live calves' stomachs...

Can't they just leave chocolate as it is and not use animal byproducts, or salt, or corn syrup, or carnauba wax, or resinous glaze, or artificial colourings.
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Ahh, but there;s the rub -- most of the packaged candy you buy isn't chocolate, in fact, it has so many additional ingredients, and so little cocoa butter that it can;t legally be sold as chocolate. You'll notice it;s called "Candy bar" and "Chocolaty Candy" or Chocolaty Coated Bar" or "Chocolate-flavoured something" to avoid the word "chocolate", which would obligate them to use much more expensive 'real' chololate ingredients.
 
I fit into the 'don't give a damn' category.I'm not bothered by animals being killed to feed me, happens in the "Natural" world every day. I'm not bothered that they changed products to save money if people do not like it they will stop buying. The fact that it comes out of a calves stomach just doesn't get to me either. I don't eat any large number of candy bars and our food comes from some pretty odd places.
 
SamIchi said:
So what the crap? Why does a chocolate company need to announce their change in products they use? If a vegetarian wants to know if a product is "animal free" well they can ask the company and find out.
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Maybe because they've been told before and assumed it was acceptable, and since the status quo has changed, it's unethical to not inform your customers.

Also, many Hindus would find calf products in their food objectionable.

If you're going to eat chocolate, get the real stuff with high percentage, quality cacao and avoid this junk food that masquerades as chocolate.
 
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Its not a huge deal for me, as I dont eat much of these products, but if I had the choice to choose from rennet free, or those they offer now, I'd go the free route.
 
Ah, this is bum news. :(
I'm a vegetarian and I'm always skimming labels, making sure I'm not inadvertently eating things I make a conscious effort NOT to. Bleh.

Picture 1.jpeg

Poor cow. Look at how cute he is! His tongue is sticking out! Adorable!!

But now he's in my chocolate, as is explained in his pic. ;_; :(
 
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katie ta achoo said:
Ah, this is bum news. :(
I'm a vegetarian and I'm always skimming labels, making sure I'm not inadvertently eating things I make a conscious effort NOT to. Bleh.

View attachment 74395

Poor cow. Look at how cute he is! His tongue is sticking out! Adorable!!

But now he's in my chocolate, as is explained in his pic. ;_; :(
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He'd look better in my bread roll!
 
Just for the record:

They did use vegetarian rennet.

The products have, afaik, always been suitable for vegetarians.

They changed suppliers. The new supplier does not use vegetarian rennet. Their products became unsuitable for vegetarians overnight.

We find out two weeks later :(

lmao @ katie ta achoo! :p
 
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