Foodgrade Silver & Gold

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna:

Please accept my humble obeisance's. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I supplied the information below in response to Hrimati Mataji's letter at

the bottom of this e-mail regarding the contaminated standard in India of

manufacturing Silver and Gold Foil or Leaf. Try Monarch brand Food-grade

Silver

and Gold Leaf manufactured in Germany or Giusto Manetti brand manufactured in

Italy, they have a modern process that uses wax paper and paraffin. India

uses a primitive process.

Your insignificant servant,

Ramabhadra das

"Standard Manetti master rolls are approximately 67 feet in length and cover

approximately 22 sq.ft. without waste or overlap. Any width rolls up to 100mm

can be cut from master rolls on special order. Please refer to the karat #

(12, 16, 22, 23, 23.5 or MG22) when requesting an order or price quote."

"Paraffin wax is used in the process of manufacturing Manetti rolls. The

applied leaf must be cleaned prior to coating with a water-based acrylic to

remove any wax residue. Most oil based or solvent based sealers do not require

 

special surface preparation."

"Crocodile Ribbon Gold Leaf is manufactured by placing 4 1/8" square leaves

onto a continuous length of waxed paper with a 2mm overlap. The rolled paper

and the cardboard core are equal in width and the gold leaf is placed inside

the edge of the paper. Crocodile Ribbon Leaf can be trimmed to any size

required."

" Parrafin Wax/Oil: Parrafin Wax is Mineral Oil Wax"

"Paraffin can refer to several substances that are generally derived from

petroleum, coal tar, wood tar, etc. Liquid paraffin is another name for mineral

 

oil. Parrafin oil is another name for kerosene. White soft parrafin is

another name for vaseline or petroleum jelly. Paraffins are any chemical with

the

general formula CnH2n+2, including methane (CH4), ethane (C2 H6), propane

(C3H8), butane (C4H10), octane (C8H18), etc. Parrafin wax is a white or

colorless odorless solid waxy substance that is a complex mixture of chemicals,

 

mostly paraffins, that is often used in candles and wax paper.

Paraffin wax is used in some personal hygiene products, including

moisturizers, bath bars, hair conditioners, make-up, mascara, and lipstick.

Paraffin

wax is also used in wood sealers, paint/varnish removers, and other products."

 

 

On 22 Sep 2006, M.A.P. Mayapur Animal Protection team wrote:

> Hare Krishna!

>

> SILVER FOILS

>

> SILVER FOILS ARE NOT VEGETARIAN

>

> (This is not referring to Silver Baking Foil that is used in the West but

to

> Indian Silver Foil that is used on Sweets) They are dirty too....

>

> At the end of a meal, do you like to eat a pan, sweet, or perfumed sopari?

> And then if these things are decorated with silver foils, what more can we

> want? Many sweets also are decorated with silver foils.

>

> The silver foils are not very expensive. They are sold by weight.

> Ordinarily, you can buy a packet of 160 foils for a price between Rs. 100

to

> 200. That is, approximately one rupee per foil. Not only the sweets, now a

> days it is also applied on fruits. Some Ayurvedic medicines also are

wrapped

> in silver foils.

>

> What do you think? - how are these silver foils made? Hold your breath.

>

> They are made by hammering thin sheets of silver in middle of booklets

made

> of a bull's intestines. In other words, after slaughtering a bull, quickly

> his intestines are removed, and sold to the manufacturers of foils. The

> skins made of old intestines are of no use. Even one-day-old intestines

can

> not be used, because within a few hours they stiffen.

>

> The foil manufacturer removes blood and stools from the intestines, and

cuts

> them into pieces. Then he puts one piece over another, making a booklet

out

> of it. At his home, or in the factory, he puts one silver (or gold) sheet

> in-between each page. Then he hammers it hard until those metal sheets

turn

> into thin wafers.

>

> The intestines of bulls are so strong, that even repeated hammering do not

> destroy them, or they do not let the foils move around inside. Because of

> the hammering, some tissues of the intestine mix with the foils. After

that

> the foil manufacturer sells the bundle of foils to the sweets

manufacturers.

> Some small foil manufacturers sell the foils to the temples.

>

> This foil is not only dirty, it also is non-veg. Even the meat-eaters do

not

> eat intestines. Use of these foils turn even sweets into non-veg food. A

few

> years ago the Indian Airlines learned about this, and since then stopped

> using them on the sweets served in their planes.

>

> Pan

>

> By now, a pan-lover vegetarian person may have eaten equivalent of many

> miles of oxen intestines! For them, here is an another bad news - the

Chuna

> that they apply on pan, also is not vegetarian! That is made from the

shells

> of living insects. These insects are taken from the ocean, killed, and

> removed from the shell. Then the shells are softened in water, dried, and

> ground into white powder. When you put this Chuna in your mouth, you are

> participating in killing of many insects. This is no different from taking

> life of a goat or a pig. Everyone wants to live, no one likes the pain of

> death.

>

> Maneka Gandhi("Illustrated Weekly of India")

>

>

> y.s.

> Hrimati dasi