Non-Veg ingredients in French-Fries !!

[Guest guest]

SrI:

namO nArAyaNa!

 

Dear all,

 

The following information will be useful to those

who do not know much about McDonald's

products like French Fries etc which have

non-veg ingredients in them. Since we are

very particular about aahAra niyamam, this might

be a good pointer for those who consume such

products. While any cooked product from outside

is not to be consumed {Or thats the state which

is desired}, some may consume them due to circumstances

Or whatsoever. Even in such cases, it will be important

to know beforehand about these things.

 

aDiyEn got the following info from a friend in US.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

anantapadmanAbhan.

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some interesting fact:

 

An irate Indian consumer in the US has discovered that

McDonald's uses beef in its French Fries.

Sanjeev Dahiwadkar, who lives in Columbia, Maryland, was

horrified to discover in a book review that the flavouring

of McDonald's French Fries comes from a flavour extracted

from animals.

 

That discovery angered Dahidwakar because he is a

vegetarian and very particular about what he eats -

especially when it comes to food which is described as

vegetarian.

 

As Fast Food Nation, written by investigative journalist

Eric Schlosser, points out, McDonald's originally used beef

tallow to fry its French Fries.

 

But after switching to vegetable oil in 1990, it began

using a natural flavour that, on the record, comes from an

" animal product " .

 

However, in its declaration of ingredients, McDonald's does

not say that any animal extracts are used in its French

Fries.

 

Worried after reading this, Dahiwadkar shot off e-Mail to

McDonald's asking the company to comment on the revelation.

 

The reply he received shocked him.

 

It said, " ..for flavour enhancement, McDonald's french fry

suppliers use a miniscule amount of beef flavouring as an

ingredient in the raw product. "

 

The reply - carrying the reference no. 665483 - signed by a

member of the company's Home Office Customer Satisfaction

Department went on to explain that " .beef is not listed as

an ingredient because McDonald's voluntarily (restaurants

are not required to list ingredients) follows the " Code of

Federal Regulations " (required for packaged goods) for

labeling its products.

 

" As such, like food labels you would read on packaged

goods... the ingredients in " natural flavours " are not

broken down, " it said.

 

" Again, we are sorry if this has caused any confusion, " the

reply concluded.

 

The official list of ingredients of McDonald's French Fries

lists, " potatoes, partially hydrogenated soybean oil,

natural flavour, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (to

preserve natural colour). "

 

They are " cooked in partially hydrogenated soybean and corn

oils, TBHQ (to protect flavour) " it adds.

 

The realisation that he has been consuming beef in some

fashion, simply because the ingredients did not list them,

has angered and shocked Dahidwakar.

 

While Schlosser's book is a savage indictment of many

aspects of McDonald's functioning, Dahidwakar is worried

about the fact that thousands of Indians in the US may have

consumed something they didn't want to simply because the

truth wasn't told on the list of ingredients.

 

" They think that they are having just a potato chip and

they eat it on even at the day of fasting, " they said.

 

Actually, the revelation that McDonald's uses beef in its

French Fries is not a new one, although Schlosser's book,

published in January this year, has drawn attention to the

fact.

 

A January/February 1998 issue of The Vegetarian Journal,

for instance, says: " In February 1997, McDonald's informed

us by telephone that the natural flavour in their French

fries is a " beef product. "

 

" At that time, they declined to send us this information in

writing. In July 1997, McDonald's sent us a fax stating

that " the natural flavour used in French Fries is from an

animal source, " it added.

 

McDonald's claims it does not use beef at all in the food

served at the restaurants in India.

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