Mars Whey Cuffuffle

[Mr Flibble]

Mars have announced that their chocolate bars are no longer vegetarian as they contain whey. More here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,2078833,00.html

[terrace max]

The Man from Mars says:


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

:rolleyes:

[Mr Flibble]

I do sometimes think I should have taken a career in marketting ;)

[Kevster]

Bill Hicks once did a really good piece on marketing...

[absentmindedfan]

"Seriously, kill yourselves"

[Hemlock]

Being vegetarian is a minefield - you can never be really sure if something has free range eggs in it or rennet or whatever. I think it's easier being a vegan quite honestly.
Vegetarians who eat products with non free range eggs in or free range eggs which come from farms who send chickens for slaughter might as well eat meat because their diet is no better than a meat etaers.
Hopefully this will make more veggies vegan.

[Pisces]

I couldn't have said that better myself, Hemlock. Vegan is definitely much easier.

[twinkle]

It's not just vegetarians who will be affected, they won't be suitable for people who keep kosher or halal either.

[Tam Lin]

Hopefully this will make more veggies vegan.

It did me - the Mars thing was one of the deciding factors for me this weekend. The other was a guy talking about chickens developing ammonia burns on their legs through having to live in slurry. I realised I truly wanted no part of that.

[Gorilla]

good to hear there is at least something positive to come out of this Tam Lin!


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

this is just another example of how diluted 'vegetarianism' has become in many people's eyes. i would never have knowingly eaten rennet as a veggie, so i guess i was an 'extremely strict vegetarian'. :rolleyes: no wonder i went vegan then! i hope others will follow suit.

being vegan makes so much more sense :D

i wonder if the Vegetarian Society will have anything to say about this?

[puffin]

I agree Gorilla. You wouldnt believe some of the things the veggies i met at the weekend ate, i was so tempted to say something but i didnt want to start at someone elses celebrations. I know some wonderful veggies though but some just have no clue.

[harpy]

Yes, Gorilla, the Vegetarian Society has been commenting in a lot of the reports e.g.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2079101,00.html

and they have also asked members to write to the local press about it (it's National Vegetarian Week soon so you never know, some of the letters might get published).

Edited to add link: http://www.vegsoc.org/news/2007/mars.html

Must say it hadn't crossed my mind that these products were suitable for vegetarians to begin with - I thought most of them weren't. But it's been a while since I checked.

[Gorilla]

thanks for the links, harpy. i tried to check the Vegetarian Society's website earlier but couldn't access it for some reason.

i expect many vegetarians wouldn't have made the connection that whey used in these products could be from non-vegetarian sources.

[veg_eric]

Mars have announced that their chocolate bars are no longer vegetarian as they contain whey. More here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,2078833,00.html

Since when is Whey a issue for vegetarians?

There are loads of vegetarian who will eat rennet made cheese too, so if it's just about whey, I don't get it? :confused:

[Gorilla]

'vegetarian cheese' shouldn't contain rennet, but unfortunately many 'veggies' still eat cheese made with rennet. vegetarians who are as strict as i was though would be disgusted to learn that Mars products now contain slaughter by-products.

but as i and others have said earlier, this is why it's so much easier being vegan.

[RedWellies]

When I was veggie, I wouldn't eat cheese that contained animal rennet. Same goes for whey/whey powder. That made a lot of things non-veggie. So, this news would have been important to me.

[Mr Flibble]

There are loads of vegetarians who eat fish, it doesn't mean fish is vegetarian ;)

Animal rennet (calf stomach lining) is used in a lot of cheese production. As whey is a biproduct of cheese making the whey can be contaminated. I've no idea how likely this is, whether all whey contains a significant amount or it's very rare.

[RedWellies]

I believe the rennet is used early on, to separate the curds and whey.

[puffin]

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/cheese.html

[Gorilla]

imagining i was still a vegetarian: even if the whey Mars used didn't actually contain the rennet itself, knowing the whey had come from non-vegetarian cheese would be enough to put me off the product. it's similar to non-vegetarian wine in my view, the animal-based finings may not be present in the product but they are part of the production, so i would want to avoid it.

i was a vegan in the making though, and i don't know how many other current vegetarians would feel the same way. hopefully they will all convert! ;)

[veg_eric]

it's similar to non-vegetarian wine in my view, the animal-based finings may not be present in the product but they are part of the production, so i would want to avoid it.

i was a vegan in the making though,

that's the difference, you were a vegan in the making. ;)

The "average" vegetarian that I come across, doesn't seem to mind that part of milk means killing an animal to get or make that product.

I don't mingle with vegetarians a lot, but my impression is that the majority wears leather shoes?

There are different levels of being vegetarian perhaps, but I get the impression that the common denominator is "don't eat meat".
Fish or leather are not a big issue for them afaik?
Or do vegetarian boards also have heated debates on what's vegetarian or not?

[Gorilla]

i think a lot of vegetarians are vegans in the making if they're vegetarian for ethical reasons. often they just need a little bit of help or extra info to go vegan (like i did).

i expect a lot of 'vegetarians' who eat fish/non-veggie cheese/wear leather etc. know they're not really vegetarian but say they are to make life easier for themselves or because they want to be seen as veggie for some reason.

i don't think this issue should be ignored just because it won't bother some so-called vegetarians.

[Sluggie]

When I was ovo-lacto I used to avoid non-vegetarian cheese, but I had no idea that whey was not always veggie. It wouldn't have occured to me that a chocolate bar might have been unsuitable for me to eat.

I'm sure the majority of ovo-lactos are similarly ignorant. The labelling on food needs to be tightened up so that people can understand what they are eating without having to do a ton of research on every ingredient in every product.

[mooli magic]

I've registered my complaint in the hope that they will have to take note due to sheer number of comments...don't know if that's realistic though? I remember how people resolved never to eat a MacDonalds after Super Size Me and three months on...

If you want to complain to Masterfoods, you can do so here:

http://www.advisory.masterfoods.com/ContactForm.aspx?ContactReason=Comment&Market=GB&Language=gb&Brand=ConsumerCareComment&WS=http://www.masterfoodsconsumercare.co.uk

[MeTheVegan]

I think the definition of vegetarian is so blurry nowadays.
Of course this is never helped by people who eat fish and chicken and still call themselves veggie. :mad:

Personally when I was veggie I always ate vegetarian cheese, free range eggs, avoided gelatine, rennet and whey and also refused to wear leather so I guess I was a 'strict' veggie. But I know of many other people who did all these things mentioned and still called themselves veggie.

People tell me all the time it must be hard to be vegan, but I have to agree that acutally it's a lot easier as the 'perimeters' of what is vegan and what is not are far more clear (to me in any case!)