Demand Letter Sent to FDA

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Zarinah Muhammad, and I am a Muslim US citizen. I would like to bring a dispute against the FDA for allowing food and product distributors to disguise pork ingredients under aliasas that the average consumer would never associate with pork. Consuming or using products that contain pork ingredients is prohibited by the Islamic and Jewish faiths. Muslims and Jewish consumers are being denied their 1st Amendment Right to practice their faiths because they are being unduly burdened by companies that do not clearly label their products as containing Pork ingredients. For example, many breads contain mono-diglicyerides which may may come from pork. Because the average Muslim or Jewish consumer has no background knowledge about mono-diglycerides, he/she may buy bread products containing the ingredient unaware of the fact that the ingredient is derived from swine. A Muslim or Jewish person should not have to possess the vocabulary awareness of a food scientist to be able to practice his/her faith freely. Just as consumers with food allergies to soy, lactose, or peanuts have the right to be clearly warned of such contents in a product, so are Muslim and Jewish consumers entitled to the same clear warnings about pork ingredients being in products. Surely the right to be warned of something that endangers someone's deep rooted religious convictions is tantamount to the right to be warned of an ingredient that may endanger someone's health. Products that contain peanuts or soy are clearly labled without aliases; however, products that contain pork have ambiguous and vague name labeling.
I urge the FDA to cease allowing companies the ability to use vague and ambiguous names for pork ingredients on their labels. If products do contain pork, the ingredient label which is meant to inform consumers about what they are eating should be just as transparent as those products containing soy or peanuts. The label should clearly state "Contains Pork." Muslims cannot have any type of contact with pork products, this includes products made by using pork enzymes or other similar bi-products. Muslim and Jewish consumers have a Constitutional right to practice their religions without undue burden. When products have labels that require the consumer to do extensive research in order to discover the product contains pork, there is an undue burnden placed upon Muslim and Jewish consumers, a burden that is not placed on consumers with food alergies to soy and peanuts. This is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause and also the 1st Amendment.
I request that the FDA immediately reform their mandates to obligate companies to clearly print "Contains Pork" on the labels of products that use any pork products in the making of the product; this includes not only food products but any and all other products that use pork ingredients, such as body soaps, shampoos, and toothpastes.