Vegetarian Ingredients Warning Newsletter Hare Krsna

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Vegetarian-Restaurants.net

Vegetarian Food, Cosmetics & Body Care Products Alert Newsletter Issue I

by the Vegetarian Research Organization

 

This is our first Newsletter and I hope you will consider it to be useful. I am

sure many readers of this newsletter have done their own research on what foods

contain meat products.

 

Your input is extremely valuable in making this newsletter useful. Please send

what you have discovered to vrupdates so that I can add your letter

to our web site. Then thousands of others can benefit from what you have

learned.

 

Please feel free to print this newsletter and show it to your friends.Also if

you want to put anything from this Newsletter on your web site please feel free

to use anything. In return we just ask that you give a link to

Vegetarian-Restaurants.net (http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net)

 

Natural Nirvana (http://www.naturalnirvana.com) is our new sales web site

selling vegan, vegetarian and spiritual products.

 

Natural Flavorings

There are no laws requiring the disclosure of meat as an ingredient on food

labels. Companies often use the term natural flavors, which can mean almost

anything. Meat must be mentioned on a food label if it is a stand-alone

ingredient (as tuna fish or chicken or beef stocks). Companies cite

"proprietary reasons" to avoid disclosing whether their natural flavors contain

meat. Many companies do not put the word "animal" on the ingredient label in

order to not lose customers.

 

Letters to Supriya Kelkar

>From food companies in answer to her questions about what products contain

meat-ingredients

 

Supriya Kelkar checked with several companies to see which of their products

are vegetarian and animals-free. Below are some letters sent by food companies

to her in reference to animal ingredients in their products.

 

Lipton

SideKicks Broccoli and White Cheddar Pasta Mix, which contains among it

ingredients listed on the package: pasta, salt, cornstarch, cheddar and blue

cheese, whey, broccoli, MSG, spices, yeast extract, maltodextrin, and natural

flavors.

 

Supriya called the 800 number of Lipton s customer service to ask if the

product contained meat as one of its "natural flavors." She was told by a

representative that it was safe to assume that it did. Two months later, she

received a reply from Warren Blume, a spokesperson for Lipton s parent company,

Unilever Bestfoods:

 

Hi Supriya,

Unilever Bestfoods takes great care to be certain that the ingredient

statements of all of our products are accurately labeled and are in full

regulatory compliance as outlined by the FDA/USDA guidelines.

However, because so many of our consumers are vegetarians, we want to be able

to assure those consumers that each and every product on the grocers shelf is

animal-origin free, or there exists the possibility that they are not

animal-origin free. We create all our products to meet exacting standards for

quality, flavor, and value. Our product formulations are always subject to

change. Products are reevaluated on a regular basis and we are always aware

that preferences differ.

 

As a result, due to this possible reformulation of our products from time to

time, we cannot always guarantee that the ingredients are dairy, meat & egg

free. In speaking with our consumers, a majority of people found this to be an

acceptable solution.

 

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Warren L. Blume Unilever Bestfoods Consumer Services

 

Campbell Soup Company

This is Supriya’s response to questions to Campbell Soup Company.

 

Supriya Kelkar, we received your message and appreciate your taking the time to

contact Campbell Soup Company about our Prego Pasta Sauce.

 

Because product ingredients change frequently, we cannot maintain current lists

of products which lack certain ingredients.

 

However, the following products are considered vegetarian:

 

• Campbell's Tomato Juice

• Pace Picante Sauce

• Pace Thick & Chunky Salsa

• R&W Vegetarian Vegetable Soup

• Soup At Hand Classic Tomato Soup

• Swanson Vegetable Broth

• V8 Juice

• V8 Splash Juice

 

We hope this information is helpful to you. We appreciate feedback like yours

because it helps us become aware of consumer preferences and concerns. We have

forwarded your concerns to our Quality Management Team so they may benefit from

your input.

 

Thank you for visiting the Campbell Soup web-site.

Campbell Soup Web Team

 

Health Food Companies Being Bought Up

The sale of organic food has been increasing by 20 percent per year for the

past 10 years and sold over $11 billion worth of organic products in 2004. It

is the fastest growing segment of the food industry.

 

Because of this many of the organic and vegetarian health food manufacturers

are being bought up by major food companies, many of which deal in genetically

modified foods, meat processing and supplying or cigarettes.

 

Often the label of these acquired health food companies do not say who actually

owns the company. On Terra Chips package in very small print it states that

Terra is a division of Hain Celestial (whose brands also include Westbrae and

Health Valley), which is partially owned by Heinz. Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen

products are distributed by Small Planet Foods and Small Planet is owned by

General Mills.

 

In 2000, Kraft Foods who is owned by tobacco giant Philip Morris purchased the

vegetarian Boca Burger line. Kraft also sells Oscar Meyer hot dogs.

 

Responsible Shopper contains a list of companies and whether they are

responsible companies and if not what they have done that is irresponsible

(http://www.responsibleshopper.org).

 

Some of the purchased health food companies and who acquired them is listed

below.

Company True Owner

Brown Cow Hershey

Earth Best Baby Food Heinz

Arrowhead Mills Heinz

Hain Pure Food Heinz

Terra Chips Heinz

Garden of Eatin¹ Heinz

Westsoy Heinz

Millstone Organic Coffee Proctor and Gamble

Nature¹s Farm Chicken Tyson

Cascadian Farms General Mills

Muir Glen General Mills

Knudsen Juices Phillip Morris

Odwalla Coca-Cola

 

Orange Juice

Minute Maid orange juice contains D3 derived from lanolin (usually an animal

source). The vitamin D3 found in Tropicana is a synthetic powder and is the

same form that is added to milk. Their source of vitamin D is not derived from

an animal and the product is kosher certified.

 

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that aids in the absorption of calcium and

phosphorus from food. Vitamin D raises the blood levels of calcium and

phosphorus and is part of a large group of bone-making and bone-maintaining

nutrients and other compounds. Some vitamin D is made in the body when skin is

exposed to sunlight.

 

Yves Veggie Cuisine

Yves Veggie Cuisine just added a few non-vegan products to their line Veggie

Authentic Burger, the Savory Veggie Burger (cheddar cheese), and the Veggie

Good Dog, so you may want to check the ingredients of these products before

purchasing them.

 

The Yves labels now state that their products are produced in a factory where

egg products are manufactured.

 

Burger King Veggie Burgers

Now contain egg whites. Previously the veggie burger paddy was vegan. Also this

burger is often cooked on the same grill as meat burgers.

 

Cochineal or Carmine

Cochineal (also called carmine or carminic acid) is a red dye that is made from

the crushed female and unhatched larva of the cochineal beetle. These insects

live on prickly pear cactus plants in Peru, the Canary Islands and other

places. These bugs eat the red cactus berries and the red color accumulates in

them. Carmine is a more concentrated coloring made from cochineal. The insects

are ground up and are used in red, pink and purple processed foods.

 

Cochineal is used to give color to candy, ice cream, fruit bars, yogurt, bright

red maraschino cherries, jams, pills, lipstick, fruit fillings, blushes, eye

shadows, vitamins and juice drinks. I would be extremely careful and any

strawberry product that is colored by natural colorings. They may be declared

on labels as "natural coloring" or "color added."

 

Because the red artificial dyes 2 and 40 are both believed to be carcinogenic,

cochineal is often used as a safe food dye in natural products. In the past

several years, doctors from around the world have proven that these artificial

red food colorings can cause allergic reactions, including sneezing, asthma,

and who knows what.

 

Some products that get their red color from cochineal (carmines) are:

 

• Dannon Strawberry Yogurts

• Ocean Spray Pink-Grapefruit Juice Drink

• Tropicana Pure Premium Orange-Strawberry Juice

• Tropicana Season's Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice.

 

Lecithin

Previously eggs were the main source of lecithin used in processed foods Now

more often than not soybean is used to produce lecithin. Because of its high

lecithin content, egg yolk is still used today to produce mayonnaise and other

products.

 

Vegetarian Products by Brand Name in England

A good England site to check is IsItVeggie.com (http://www.isitveggie.com).

This site tells whether many of the products found in the UK are vegan or

vegetarian.

 

Some Products You May Be Interested In

In their questions and answer section Heinz states that there are no meat

products in their catsup and that any natural favoring in any of their catsup

come from a vegetarian source.

 

Wrigley's gum contains a vegetarian source of glycerin, but some of the other

gums contain animal-derived glycerin.

 

Caesar salad dressing often contains anchovy and raw eggs, and Caesar dressing

usually means containing anchovies and eggs to thicken it.

 

When I contacted Kraft about animal rennet in their cheese, they told me that

the only cheeses that do not contain animal rennet are Kraft Swiss Cheese and

Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheeses.

 

Prego does not make a single vegetarian pasta sauce, Campbell's, the parent

company of Prego, makes only two vegetarian soups, out of its numerous lines of

soup. Meat ingredients are often listed as “natural flavors.”

 

Cane (Sucrose)

Animal bones are often used as a filter while processing sugar. Florida Crystal

Sugar and Jack Frost Sugar are not processed with animal bones. In the UK, Tate

and Lyle and Billingtons sugars are free of animal substances. British Sugar,

trading as Silver Spoon state that their white sugar is vegan but they don t

guarantee the brown sugars they receive was not processed with some bone

charcoal by their suppliers.

 

Maple Syrup

Most maple syrups do not usually use any animal products to process them at the

present time. Holsum, Spring Tree and Maple Groves do not use animal-derived

products to process their maple syrup.

 

Olestra, An Ingredient to Look Out For

Olestra (Olean, Max) is a fake fat that is not vegan that may be found in

potato chips and other such products.

 

Frito-Lay Products

Anyone wanting further information about Frito-Lay's products can contact their

Consumer Affairs Department at 1-800-352-4477. The Frito-Lay products listed

below contain animal products (this may be meat, eggs or milk).

 

• Baked Lay's KC Masterpiece BBQ Potato Chips

• Baken-Ets Hot 'N Spicy Cracklins

• Baken-Ets Regular Cracklins

• Doritos Extremes Zesty Sour Cream & Cheddar Tortilla Chips

• Doritos Salsa Verde Tortilla Chips

• Grandma's Molasses Big Cookies

• Maui Style Onion Potato Chips

• Ruffles Big BBQ & Cheddar Flavor Rush Potato Chips

• Sunchips French Onion Multigrain Snacks

 

Lay’s baked KC Masterpiece Chips contains chicken fat. The enzymes used in the

cheese-making process of Lay s products are usually microbial enzymes that are

produced in a lab for use in food.

 

European Numbers

Most ice creams contain E471 or egg. Igloo, Kimo and Nestle are some brands

which are often vegetarian. Most chocolates contain E322 & Lecithin. Some

brands clearly specify that the soya lecithin in them comes from a vegetarian

source such as Kit Kat.

 

Gelatin and Foods That Contain Gelatin

Gelatin is boiled animal skin, tendons, ligaments or bones, Gelatin is used to

make many products. Beside food products gelatin is also used to make

photography film, which is a good reason to use a digital camera.

 

Kosher gelatin can be made with fish bones or cow skins, but it can still be

considered kosher when it is mixed with dairy products. The bones and hides

used in gelatin production are considered pareve. The general meaning of pareve

refers to foods that are neither milk nor meat. Since the gelatin ingredients

are derived from hides or bones and are not the flesh of an animal and also

because gelatin has been significantly changed, it is considered to be pareve

Kosher, and therefore can be mixed with dairy products.

 

Halal gelatin means that the animal that the gelatin came from was killed

according to Islamic law, so Halal gelatin may not be vegetarian.

 

An alternative substance to animal gelatin is Agar-Agar, which is sold in

noodle-like strands, in powdered form, or in blocks. It is usually white-ish in

color. Some products that are vegetarian that have the same properties as

gelatin are: Cellulose (Amid), Agar-Agar (derived from seaweed), Biobin, Guar,

Xanthan, Carob fruit and the root of the Kuzu.

 

In our correspondence with Yoplait-Colombo they state that the gelatin in our

yogurt is from an animal source. They were helpful and honest in their

dealings. There is gelatin is the Yoplait products but not usually in their

Colombo yogurt products.

 

Some products that contain gelatin and are therefore not suitable for

vegetarian are:

 

Breakfast Cereals

General Mills Lucky Charms

Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats

Kellogg's Cinnamon Marshmallow Scooby-Doo

Kellogg's Magix

Kellogg's Smorz

Trader Joe's Frosted Mini-Wheats

 

Yogurts

Dannon

Yoplait

Mountain Dairy

 

Margarine

Promise

 

Energy Bars

Advantage Carb Control Nutrition Bar

Carb Solutions High Protein Bar

Odyssey Triple Layer Protein Bar

 

Baked Goods

Sara Lee French Cheesecake

Nabisco Devil's Food SnackWells

 

Candies

Black Forest Gummy Bears

Snak Club Apple and Peach Rings

Creme Savers Soft Candy

Brach's Fruit Ripples

Junior Mints

Jell-o Pudding Bars

Jellie Beans

Jell-o

Almost all marshmallows

 

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Help Us Help You - Vegetarain Research Orgniazation

Appeal for Help

Check Out Our Detailed List of Ingredients That May Contain Meat By-Products

 

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