Masterfoods, Animal Rennet and a whole lot of eBeef

Plastered all over MySpace and various forums that I read recently, has been the news that Masterfoods - the people behind Mars bars, Twix, Bounty, Snickers and a whole load more - have decided to start using animal rennet their chocolate bars meaning they won't be suitable for vegetarians.

For those unaware, animal rennet is a product sourced from the stomachs of calves that aids the production of chocolate. Previously, Masterfoods had used a vegetarian rennet in it's choccy bars but decided to switch it's source of rennet from the 1st May this year.

Just so you know the chocolate bars that MIGHT be affected are,

Products which may contain whey Derived from animal rennet:

Bounty Dark / Milk
Celebrations
Flyte
Galaxy Ripple
Galaxy Minstrels
Galaxy Block/Caramel/Fruit & Hazelnut/ Hazelnut
Galaxy Promises Cocoa Crisp/ Caramel Crunch/ Roast Hazelnut/Rich Coffee
Maltesers Original / White
Mars Original
Mars Delight
Mars Planets
Milky Way / Crispy rolls / Magic Stars
Revels
Snickers
Topic
Tracker Chocolate Chip / Forest Fruit / Lemon / Roasted Nut
Twix

Ice Cream:
Bounty Ice Cream
Galaxy Caramel Swirl Ice Cream / Vanilla / Triple Choc
Maltesers Ice Cream
Mars Ice Cream / Xtra Ice Cream
Snickers Ice Cream / Xtra Ice Cream

I think this is an issue that might affect quite a few vegetarians and make them decide which side of the fence they're actually on. Give up popular chocolate or stop calling myself a vegetarian. I know there's a few people who won't give a toss.

I do wonder how many vegetarians will ignore the contents of a mars bar for their afternoon sugar fix. Personally, I quite like to partake of a king size Twix on the odd occasion but as with Wine Gums, I'll take the hit.

More importantly though, the fact that Masterfoods have decided to replace a perfectly good vegetarian product with a meat one is something any decent vegetarian should be concerned with. The fact that we won't be able to have a Snickers after work is piffle compared to this.

I find it pretty messed up that a company can do something like that. I'm sure it was financially driven decision and it saddens me quite a bit. If you care about this, do support any groups putting pressure on Masterfoods. here's a link to an online petition against Masterfoods and here's the Vegetarian Society's opinion on thing if you're interested.