meat in flavors

[Guest guest]

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

Did you know if a product has 'flavors' listed on the label that may include

meat?

If not, read on:

 

your servant,

Krishna-kripa das

 

>Mon, 17 Nov 2003 13:28:19 -0800 (PST)

>Supriya Kelkar <skelkar80 >

>skelkar (AT) umich (DOT) edu

>meat in flavors

>bvi (AT) afn (DOT) org

>

>To whom it may concern:

>

>I'm writing to inform you about a salient but well-hidden health issue that

I think ISKCON would find very informative. I came across the subject when

I was eating a store-bought item that had a very "meaty" taste to it. A

strict vegetarian, I immediately checked the ingredients to make sure I

hadn't made a mistake in my purchase. There was no meat listed under the

ingredients, but there was a listing that I had always found very

mysterious: "flavors."

>

>I called the company, and was told that there was meat in the product. I

asked why the meat wasn't listed in the ingredients. The company

representative informed me that meat is often placed under the label

"flavors,natural flavors," or "artificial flavors," (an artificial flavor

generally still has natural products in it, as only a certain percentage of

it is artificial). I asked how this was possible. She told me that it was

completely legal, and in checking with the FDA and other sources, it is. As

long as the product being masked under "natural/artificial flavors" is not a

common allergen, the company does not have to disclose that it is in the

food item.

>

 

>I began to call other leading food companies only to find that a great

majority of them including Lipton, Prego (which does not make a single

vegetarian pasta sauce), and Campbell's (the parent company of Prego, itself

making only two vegetarian soups out of its numerous lines of soup), have

meat products under their "flavors." Most of the companies responded

indifferently. They did not seem to find it a problem that they were

misleading millions of American consumers on a daily basis as long as they

followed FDA guidelines. Still others, like Kraft, replied that they do not

even keep track of what's in their "flavors" because they change so often.

>

>As a representative of a socially conscious organization, I wanted to

inform you of the issue, in hopes that you will be able to spread the word.

Please feel free to contact me for responses from the companies and any

other questions. Thank you for your time.

>

>Sincerely,

>Supriya Kelkar <skelkar (AT) umich (DOT) edu>