Mars starts using animal products
Monday, 14 May 2007
Link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/h...653175.stm

Some of the UK's best-selling chocolate bars, such as Mars and Twix, will no longer be suitable for vegetarians.
Also affecting brands such as Snickers and Maltesers, owner 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".

'Extremely disappointed'

Masterfoods said it had started using rennet from 1 May and non-affected products had a "best before date" up to 1 October.

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.

"If the customer is an extremely strict vegetarian, then we are sorry the products are no longer suitable, but a less strict vegetarian should enjoy our chocolate," said Paul Goalby, corporate affairs manager for Masterfoods.

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.

wont be eating that chocolate then.

Mars is crap chocolate, anyway. Not that I really care about the rennet issue -- I'm just offended by bad chocolate, in general.

Genesia said:

i agree mars is rubbish but when ur on the run and need a quick chocolate boost mars is easy 2 get

chocolate is nasty anyway..i hate sweets in general..

katt said:

just goes to show that they don't really understand about vegetarianism.

it does make me wonder what the reasoning behind this move might be? seems like they're getting some bad press over it, so in order to take that risk, the benefit, say in terms of production cost, would have to be considerable. and that should concern even non-veg custumers - are they trying to sell cheaper crap at the same price?

i guess it's some small consolation that they're issuing a press statement about it, though i've always been suspect of mars bars, snickers, and anything with nougat in it...i always figured there was some kind of lard issue going on there.

IrresistibleB1tch said:

That's exactly what I think. Jerks.

Well, I'm not a fan of their products anyway. Swiss and Belgian chocolates for me.

IrresistibleB1tch said:

That's a great point. It would be far more admirable to raise their price and keep the product what it was, or even (dare I say it?) improve upon it!

That's okay.
From what I heard,
The Vegans can't stand the Martians & vise-a-versa.
It's practically an intergalactic Hatfields & McCoys between these two species.

Illustrator said:

That made me Snicker

Illustrator said:

yeah! bastids!

Illustrator said:

Future vegan colonists on Mars beware!

JediTodd said:

IrresistibleB1tch said:

Goddamn Martians!
If they're out not abusing their probes,
they're out slaughtering cows.

No wonder the Vegans despise 'em so much..

Illustrator said:

http://www.cowabduction.com/

what?

There is MUCH better chocolate to be had! Screw Mars!

No more crap chocolates for y'all

Forget the calf stomachs, I hear they're manufactured in factories that also process peanuts!!

NDRU said:

ewww, i don't want to bite into a candy bar and find a piece of linus or snoopy in it!

Teacher said:

hush ur mouth

Anxiety said:

Actually, one of their factories is a couple of streets away from me.
Yet I still rather have Toblerone

Anxiety said:

Roast Woodstock might be okay

NDRU said:

weepingwall said:

WillyWonka said:

BUT NOT WILLY WONKA"S SWEETS HE MAKES THE BEST KIND!!..plus i have this bad cavity in my tooth so i like avoid candy.

Controversial changes are brewing in the world of candy, specifically in the area of mass market chocolate in the USA.

There is currently a petition to the FDA, being supported by the US Chocolate Industry and other groups, requesting the FDA allow for certain changes in the standard of identity for chocolate.

This change in standard would mean it would be legal and allowable for chocolate manufacturers to use vegetable fat substitutes in place of cocoa butter (cocoa butter costs three times as much as cheap, low-quality vegetable fat), but yet still label the resulting inferior 'mockolate' product as chocolate.

More about the petition here: http://dontmesswithourcho...ittard.com