by Maneka Gandhi
— Our thanks to Maneka Gandhi for permission to republish this post, which originally appeared on the Web site of People for Animals on May 11, 2012. Gandhi is a member of the Indian parliament and the founder of People for Animals, the largest animal-welfare organization in India.
How many times a day do you eat a cow or a pig? Every time you eat gelatin. You do not even see it, so you have no idea how it is made. This is how.
Gelatin is made from decaying animal hides, boiled crushed bones, and the connective tissues of cattle and pigs. Animal bones, skins, and tissues are obtained from slaughter houses. Gelatin processing plants are usually located near slaughterhouses, and often the owners of gelatin factories have their own slaughterhouses where animals are killed just for their skin and bones.
When the animal parts arrive at the food processing plant, they are supposed to be inspected for quality and the rotten parts discarded. There are no inspection systems in India, so you can rule this out. The bones and tissues are loaded into chopping machines that cut the parts into small pieces. A gelatin factory has cow skins piled to the ceiling. The skins are left to putrefy, or “cure”, for about a month in vats of lime. The stench from the factory can be smelt for miles.
After the hides are ripe they are put into vats of acid that disintegrates the cow hairs, skin, and cartilage. Acids and alkalines such as caustic lime or sodium carbonate are used. The gelatin obtained from acid-treated raw material has been called type-A gelatin, and the gelatin obtained from alkali-treated raw material is referred to as type-B gelatin. (In order to confuse buyers into thinking they are eating the vegetarian alternative, many food products put type-B gelatin on their ingredients list.) This is washed in water and then cooked till it becomes a white goo or gel. The gelatin is then filtered, evaporated, dried, and ground to separate the water from the gelatin solution and then shipped off to different companies. By now the cow’s skin and bones have been transformed into a translucent, colourless, brittle, flavourless solid substance called gelatin.
Commercially manufactured gelatin is packaged in ¼-ounce envelopes of desiccated granules, paper-thin sheets, known as leaves and meltable blocks. Sweeteners, flavourings, and colourings are added in the preparation…. The worldwide production … of gelatin is about 330,000 tons per year, about 660 million pounds. It is used in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetics. These four industries collectively consume over 95 percent of gelatin globally. The balance [of] 5 percent is used in abrasive paper, textiles, matches, and printer rollers. Common examples of foods that contain gelatin are gelatin desserts, jellies, trifles, aspic, marshmallows, yogurt, jelly babies, transparent sweets, jams, cream cheese, chewing gum, blancmange, charlottes, mousses, cake icing and frosting, Bavarian creams, sour cream, Turkish Delight, nougat, margarine, cake mixes, bakery glazes, meringues, ice cream, coffee, and powdered milk. It is used in jellied soups, aspic, sauces and gravies, canned ham and chicken, corned beef, and sausage. It is also used in fat-reduced foods to simulate the feel of fat and to create volume without adding calories. It is used for the clarification of juices, such as apple juice and vinegar. Isinglass, from the swim bladders of fish, is still used as a refining agent for wine and beer. Yellow-coloured soft drinks contain gelatin, as it makes beta-carotene water-soluble. To name a few products that are available in the Indian market: mentos, altoids, Trident gum, Mints, Skittles, Starbursts, M&M’s, Cupcakes, Snickers bars, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, ranch salad dressing, Hershey’s Cheetos, Twix bars, Kellogg’s Marshmallow Froot Loops cereal, Kellogg’s Smorz cereal, Kellogg’s Frosted Pop-Tarts, Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal, Kellogg’s Fruit-Flavored Snacks, Milky Way [bars], [and] Yoplait Yogurt.
Gelatin forms the shells of pharmaceutical capsules. Gelatin is also used as an ingredient in implantable medical devices, such as in some bone-void fillers. It’s also in lozenges and ointments.
Gelatin is closely related to bone glue and is used as a binder in match heads and sandpaper. It is used to hold silver halide crystals in an emulsion in virtually all photographic films and photographic papers. Cosmetics contain gelatin under the name hydrolyzed collagen. Gelatin is also used in nail-polish remover and makeup applications. The gelatin is often tinted in different colours to match a model’s natural skin tone. Gelatin is found in some glossy printing papers, artistic papers, and playing cards. It maintains the wrinkles in crêpe paper. Blocks of ballistic gelatin simulate muscle tissue as a standardized medium for testing firearms ammunition. It is commonly used as a biological substrate to culture cells.
Alternatives to gelatin include non-animal gel sources such as agar-agar seaweed, carrageenan, pectin, konjak, and guar gum. But they will never be used unless you demand them.
