How safe is gelatin?

[cory817]

I know this is a random question. So yesterday I was eating all this leftover Easter candy, the real junky stuff like marshmallow bunnies and "Peeps" etc.

At first I was thinking it wasn't too bad because the ingredients are pretty simple (sugar,gelatin,coloring)and they make a big deal about "Made in the USA" on the bag. But I also know that a lot of times the base ingredients are imported, and I remember a lot of talk about gelatin and Mad Cow and how gelatin is in everything like gel cap pills.

I don't know, I guess I'm trying to alleviate my guilt from eating all that crap and I find this kind of stuff interesting. I'm such a health-nut 90% of the time then I make all the effort pointless haha.

[Taverner]

1. If its real gelatin, it shouold be safe

And damn near non-caloric

Its the sugar and fats you have to worry about

[FudaFuda]

2. If its real gelatin, its made from skin, bones, and hooves.

Lotta people don't realize that.

[Canuckistanian]

3. It's classified as "GRAS" Generally Regarded as Safe" by the FDA

It's source is not that appetizing, though. Bones, hides and pigskin.

But I can't see gelatin as being dangerous unless it's adulterated with other chemical substances.

[mainer]

4. Theoretically, gelatin has a risk of carrying mad cow.

But then, so does lipstick and drugs in gel-caps. So, too, do vegetables that were fertilized with cow manure.

All low risk, but still a theoretical risk.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Where was it made? If China dump it.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jobycom]

7. As safe as meat, supposedly.

If it's for consumption, it has to be made from animals approved for consumption already, so in theory it comes from the exact same cows as your burgers and bacon. So if they are safe from disease, so should it be.

Being vegetarian, I don't eat it (on purpose), but if I did eat meat, I wouldn't worry about it, or not any more than I'd worry about anything else in our food supply. The standards have declined across the board, and that would be the bigger concern. Then again, I doubt you'd miss anything if you gave it up, considering that it rarely accompanies healthy food options. :)

[a la izquierda]

9. Ditto. N/T

[HamdenRice]

12. Actually it doesn't

Rendering products which are incorporated into gelatin, candy, lipstick and hygiene products can come from road kill, killed shelter animals, veterinarian offices, zoos, rotten meat, dead livestock, and any other animal source.

See post 10.

[jobycom]

14. That's wrong. Sorry. Post 10 is about rendering, which is different (but equally gross).

First, post 10 is about rendering, which is a separate thing. Second, the post isn't complete. It cites a wikipedia article without reading down further, where it says that rendering for edible purposes is limited to animals of food origin. The regulations are lower for animal food than for people food. The NYT article mentioned is outdated--much of the process changed after Mad Cow Disease became famous.

And that whole process is about rendering, not about gelatin. Gelatin is made from a separate process at plants for making gelatin. All gelatin animal parts have to come from animals certified for human consumption. Here's more:

""Strict regulations apply for all steps in the gelatin manufacturing process. Gelatin is produced from natural raw materials which originate from animals that have been examined and accepted for human consumption by veterinary authorities. Hygienic regulations with respect to fresh raw materials are ensured and each batch of raw material delivered to the manufacturing plant is immediately checked and documented.

All reputable gelatin manufacturers today follow the Quality Management System according to ISO 9001 to comply with all required physical, chemical, microbiological and technical production and quality standards. In this way all process steps follow international laws and customer-specific quality parameters and are guaranteed and documented. For pharmaceutical grade gelatins strict regulations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European CPMP’s regulation and European Pharmacopoeia must be met. A detailed overview of the regulatory requirements for gelatin production can be found in the Gelatine Handbook, page 99-101 "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin

And another link:
http://www.answers.com/topic/gelatin

I still wouldn't eat it, but a bowl of Jello is not made from Fluffy and roadkill.

[Goblinmonger]

8. It is EVERYWHERE.

As an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I can attest to the fact that it is very hard to avoid it. You really have to look. That being the case, I would imagine it is relatively safe or damn near everyone would be exposed to the problems.

[HamdenRice]

10. No less than the NY Times reported it was made from dead cats, dogs, road kill, etc.

Most people think that gelatin is made only from farm animals, and from the parts of healthful slaughterhouse animals that are mostly inedible protein, like hoofs and hides.

The reality, at least until the mad cow epidemic, was a lot more complicated.

I remember reading about a decade ago an article in the NY Times about the "rendering" industry. Rendering is to simplify a bit, the boiling or roasting down of dead animals into constituent simple fats and proteins.

Because the cooking down is so intense and long, it was thought that the health and origin of the animal didn't really matter. That article (I don't have it any more) said that for example, many of the dead cats and dogs picked up off the street in California, shelter kills and road kill were sold to the rendering industry.

Wiki says this is still the practice:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_(food_processing)#Rendering_processes_for_edible_products

The majority of tissue processed comes from slaughterhouses but also includes restaurant grease and butcher shop trimmings, expired meat from grocery stores, the carcasses of euthanized and dead animals from animal shelters, zoos and veterinarians. This material can include the fatty tissue, bones, and offal, as well as entire carcasses of animals condemned at slaughterhouses, and those that have died on farms(deadstock), in transit, etc. The most common animal sources are beef, pork, sheep, and poultry.

The rendering process simultaneously dries the material and separates the fat from the bone and protein. A rendering process yields a fat commodity (yellow grease, choice white grease, bleachable fancy tallow, etc.) and a protein meal (meat & bone meal, poultry byproduct meal, etc.).

Rendering plants often also handle other materials, such as slaughterhouse blood, feathers and hair, but do so using processes distinct from true rendering.

<end quote>

Again, the theory is that if you are reducing this down to simple compounds, it doesn't matter where it came from or what other contaminants were in it.

The NY Times article in particular traced street dead cats and dogs, veterinary carcasses and road kill to the gelatin and oils in gummy bear candy and lipstick.

Bon appetite!

[FudaFuda]

11. parts is parts. nt

[jobycom]

15. That's about rendering, not gelatin. You don't quote the NYT article

so I don't know what it was about.

[HamdenRice]

17. fats and gelatin are two main products of the rendering industry nt

[jobycom]

18. Yes and no, but the article you cite is not that type of rendering.

As your article describes, "Rendering can refer to any processing of animal byproducts into more useful materials," so gelatin making can be described as rendering, but the article you cite describes a more specific type of rendering, "the rendering of whole animal fatty tissue into purified fats like lard or tallow." The article describes a process which results in grease, tallow, fat, and a meal product (bone, chicken, or meat meal).

Read the whole article. It's about producing fat or tallow. Gelatin is made from similar raw materials, but they are treated first in an acid or alkali bath for several days or weeks. They aren't the same.

[Warpy]

13. Nothing is 100% safe

and v-CJD ("mad cow") can be transmitted in gelatin, which is made from any animal connective tissue the industry gets.

Agar can be substituted but doesn't hold up nearly as well, certainly not well enough for frosting and marshmallow.

I tend to avoid gelatin, but that's just me. It's probably no more hazardous than some of the foreign produce I do eat with gawd knows what used to grow it.

[cobalt1999]

16. On the list of things to worry about in your diet, it would be near the bottom.

If you are inclined to worry, then worry about bacteria which doesn't survive the process.