Many People Unawarely Eating Animal Products

[Singh97]

WJKK WJKF

I was recently at a path and people were eating store made cookies, pastries etc without even checking the ingredients (many were even amritdhari). And frequently you'll see people serving doughnuts (made with eggs) and pizza (made with rennet) being served for langar at kids programs at the Gurdwara.

Now my question is would an amritdhari who unawarely ate pizza with rennet (or pastries with eggs) have to go pesh? Or even just ate something with animal by products by accident.

Sorry if I offended anyone, I just asked it because it's been on my mind for years and I see it happen a lot.

WJKK WJKF

[kharkusingh1996]

can you please explain what pizza with rennet is?

[Singh97]

can you please explain what pizza with rennet is?

It's in cheese, usually comes from animal stomach. Not all cheese's have it but a lot of cheese's use it these days, especially cheese's used in pizza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet

[kharkusingh1996]

It's in cheese, usually comes from animal stomach. Not all cheese's have it but a lot of cheese's use it these days, especially cheese's used in pizza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet

This is shocking!!! Thank god I have stayed away from pizza for a long time. This needs to be spread as for our Gurdwara classes have pizza for lunch, hopefully not meat involved....

[West London Singh]

can you please explain what pizza with rennet is?

Pizza is made with Mozzarella cheese. Mozzarella is made using an enzyme called rennet, and traditionaly that is the lining of an animal's stomach. Whether or not the pizza you eat has that meat rennet depends largely, these days, on whether you live in the UK or Canada / America. In north America, if you eat a pizza made from any of the large pizza chains, or even a frozen pizza, there's still a good chance the mozzarella will have been made using animal rennet. In the UK however, it is actually extremely rare for meat rennet to be used so the mozzarella will more likely be made from vegetable rennet, thus totally suitable for all Sikhs.

[kharkusingh1996]

Pizza is made with Mozzarella cheese. Mozzarella is made using an enzyme called rennet, and traditionaly that is the lining of an animal's stomach. Whether or not the pizza you eat has that meat rennet depends largely, these days, on whether you live in the UK or Canada / America. In north America, if you eat a pizza made from any of the large pizza chains, or even a frozen pizza, there's still a good chance the mozzarella will have been made using animal rennet. In the UK however, it is actually extremely rare for meat rennet to be used so the mozzarella will more likely be made from vegetable rennet, thus totally suitable for all Sikhs.

I guess it is a problem for me because I am in America. This is very difficult to tell if it is actually made from animal rennet? Do you think big pizza chains can answer on if ALL of their cheese is from animal rennet?

[West London Singh]

I guess it is a problem for me because I am in America. This is very difficult to tell if it is actually made from animal rennet? Do you think big pizza chains can answer on if ALL of their cheese is from animal rennet?

This will answer some of your questions KharkuSingh, and it seems chains such as Pizza Hut, Dominos and Papa Johns at least use only vegetable rennet :

http://www.vrg.org/vrgnews/2007aug.htm#pizzahut

It's ironic, but as the big chains have moved towards a more humane approach by using vegetable rennet, we Sikhs are far more likely to be eating animal rennet mozzarella if we buy our pizza from Sikh owned pizza shops. And that is because the ingredient buying motivation of the small business owner is geared far more towards getting the cheapest product rather than ethical concerns. In your part of the world, where there is such a massive supply and demand for mozzarella, that cheaper one is very likely to be the traditional animal rennet.

[kharkusingh1996]

This will answer some of your questions KharkuSingh, and it seems chains such as Pizza Hut, Dominos and Papa Johns at least use only vegetable rennet :

http://www.vrg.org/vrgnews/2007aug.htm#pizzahut

It's ironic, but as the big chains have moved towards a more humane approach by using vegetable rennet, we Sikhs are far more likely to be eating animal rennet mozzarella if we buy our pizza from Sikh owned pizza shops. And that is because the ingredient buying motivation of the small business owner is geared far more towards getting the cheapest product rather than ethical concerns. In your part of the world, where there is such a massive supply and demand for mozzarella, that cheaper one is very likely to be the traditional animal rennet.

Thank you ji, this is very helpful to keep myself away from meat and the kids at gurdwara. It is sad that pizza shops owned by Sikhs are using animal rennet. They must tell sangat atleast to give a head-ups for Sikhs who do not eat meat.

[West London Singh]

Thank you ji, this is very helpful to keep myself away from meat and the kids at gurdwara. It is sad that pizza shops owned by Sikhs are using animal rennet. They must tell sangat atleast to give a head-ups for Sikhs who do not eat meat.

No I'm not saying the Sikh owned shops ARE using animal rennet, I'm merely hoping that when they source their ingredients from a supplier they are taking into account ethical and moral concerns rather than purely monetary concerns.

[Singh97]

Does anyone have an answer to the original question though?

I know a lot of Singh's in my area who've unknowingly eaten animal by products in the past, would they have to go pesh or are they fine?