The Attack of the Pig on Muslims, Jews, and Vegetarians!!!

Who expects to be consuming pork ingredients when they're drinking a beverage? Most people would never think that when they are drinking a smoothy they might be imbibing pork bi-products. But, the unfortunate reality for many people who do not want to ingest pork products is that pork ingredients are in a plethora of products that most people would never think contained any animal product, let alone pork. Pork ingredients are no longer listed on lables as Pork. This is a travesty because it inhibits many people, especially Muslims and Jews whose religious faiths prohibit the consumption of any pork products, from being able to make the decision to refrain from eating or drinking pork products. The entire purpose of a label is to inform the consumer of the ingredients within a product so that the consumer knows what he/she is eating. "In 1990, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act went in effect. The USDA and the FDA designed the requirements so that consumers would have useful information about the food they eat." Health Check Systems: What's in a Label?(http://www.healthchecksystems.com/label.htm). The purpose of a label is undermined by ambiguous and vague ingredient names, such as rennet, mono-diglycerides, and porcine enzymes. The average person would never associate pork with mono-dyglcerides. The majority of people who don't want to eat something will observe the product label to see if the unwanted ingredient is listed. If it is not, that person will buy the product, but if it is listed, then the person will not make the purchase. With the knowledge that millions of people, such as the masses of Muslims and Jews, will not purchase a product if Pork is listed as an ingredient, companies have become sneaky and underhanded about their product labeling. Instead of labeling pork ingredients as pork, companies have created new names for pork products that consumers have no background knowledge about to trigger an association with pork. For example, gelatin is made from animal hide, skin tissue or bones. Most often, it is made from a pig's hide, tissue, or bones. If a person does not know this about gelatin, he/she may eat a product, such as yogurt or Gelato, and unknowingly and against his/her will consume a pork product. Even people who have no prohibition against eating pork are unaware when they are. For example, Skittles contain gelatin, and whenever I tell someone that I can't eat Skittles because they have pork in them, the people are amazed and surprised that Skittles have pork. Mono-diglycerides may come from an animal source, such as the pig or cow, or it may come from a vegetable source. However when the ingredient is derived from a vegetable source, the product states vegetable mono-diglycerides. Natural flavors is perhaps the most ambiguously named ingredient; it could imply natural flavors from vegetables, fruits, or animal products or a combination of the three. When a consumer sees natural flavors listed on the label of a fruit juice, he/she would likely conclude that the natural flavors were derived from a fruit, when it is very possible that it is actually from swine. Food distributors have a significant awareness of the mass amount of Muslims, Jews, and Vegetarians who do not wish or desire to eat products containing pork products. Yet, these companies continue to disguise pork products under the aliases that the average consumer would never associate with swine. By allowing companies to list pork ingredients under aliases without notifying the consumer that the products contain pork, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is allowing these companies to infringe on the civil rights of consumers with religious or personal convictions against eating foods containing pork ingredients. A religious conviction against eating pork is analogous with having a food allergy to an ingredient. Just as consumers with allergies to specific ingredients are entitled to a clear indication of the inclusion of that ingredient on the label of the product that contains it, so are Muslims, Jews, and Vegetarians entitled to the same right to avoid an ingredient that their religious faiths or personal convictions prohibit them from consuming. The right to guard ones health is no more important than the right to practice ones faith without undue burden. All people must eat, and all people have a right to be able to refrain from eating an ingredient that they don't want to take in. When food companies label their ingredients with ambiguous names, they cause many consumers to unintentionally violate their religious faiths.

When consumers who have against their wills eaten an animal product come to realize that the seemingly innocuous products they've been ingesting contain unwanted animal products, they become offended and outraged. In the 90's McDonalds was sued by Hindus and Vegetarians who were incensed when they found out that a beef addictive was an ingredient in the natural flavors of the oil the fries were cook in. In 2007, many Muslims were furious when they found out that many Frito-Lay Products contained pork. According to Aurora Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Frito-Lay, the majority of cheese products are made with by using an enzyme that may come from pork; the pork enzyme is used in the milk that goes into making the cheese seasoning. Abdelkader, Rima. Muslims now in their late twenties complained on their blogs that they were upset because they had been eating these Frito-Lay products that contained pork since they were kids. I myself ate Skittles until I was 13 years old. For more than a decade, I ate pork without knowing it. That is how long a pork product can remain hidden in a product before the consumer finds out that he/she has been eating it, decades. Muslims, Jews, and Vegetarians have been eating products that contain pork for decades without knowing and against their will.

Through the method of disguising pork ingredients under aliases, companies are denying citizens a right to choose to refrain from eating swine. People should not have to be food scientists in order to be able to refrain from eating pork products. Products that contain soy or peanuts have the ingredients clearly identified as containing Soy or Peanuts on the label. Soy is not disguised in a name like mono-diglycerides or rennet or natural flavors, and neither are peanuts. Products that contain pork ingredients should be labeled with the same transparency.

I believe that the FDA is obligated to mandate that food distributors label ingredients that contain animal products clearly as either containing pork or beef. I intend to fight for this cause, and God willing, there will come a day when reading labels doesn't require a degree in bio-chemistry in order to avoid eating animal products.

To see Frito-Lay products that do not contain pork read my blog http://zssmorgasboard.blogspot.com/2009/09/frito-lay-products-that-do-not-contain.html

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References

Abdelkader, Rima http://www.arabisto.com/article.cfm?articleID=511

Frito-Lay.com

Health Check Systems: What's in a Label?(http://www.healthchecksystems.com/label.htm).