AHRG!

[emony]

Mars starts using animal products

Some of the UK's best-selling chocolate bars, such as Mars and Twix, will no longer be suitable for vegetarians.

Also affecting brands such as Snickers and Maltesers, owner Masterfoods said it had started to use animal product rennet to make its chocolate products.

Masterfoods said the change was due to it switching the sourcing of its ingredients and the admission was a "principled decision" on its part.

The Vegetarian Society said the company's move was "incomprehensible".

I am quite, quite, quite LIVID about this!

Comments

[cedara]

I knew there was a reason I preferred stuff from the natural food store, regardless of how expensive it is...

BTW, do the need to declare the use of rennet on their ingredients list?

[emony.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to avoid all Mars products now, and switch over to Cadbury's, which is still safe, afaik.

I believe they will have to list it, yes, and they won't be able to say that it's vegetarian on the packet any more, which most things do these days if they are safe. Still it's mightily annoying. I wouldn't even have checked, if I hadn't found this link on the BBC website. You don't expect things to go backward like that.

[packmentality.livejournal.com]

Um, wtf? This is very disturbing. And I love Snickers and Milky Way. Arg! Thanks for the FYI. I wouldn't have even thought to check.

[emony.livejournal.com]

I know. It's terrible! I wouldn't have checked either - you just don't expect to have to check for that sort of backwards change. I've written them a Strongly Worded Email about it. Just going to have to abandon the Galaxy and switch to Cadbury's only!

[alyse]

I know. I was livid too. I mean, those things have been considered safe for vegetarians for yonks and I wouldn't have known about it had IB at work not delighted in reading the headline out to me (I thought he was mocking at first).

So, now we're supposed to read the ingredients list of something every single time? Despite the fact that the other twenty times we've read the ingredients list it was safe?

[odycee.livejournal.com]

I'm not a vegetarian but I saw that news story at work and went into a bit of a WTF moment. What kind of crazy step back is that?! It's probably a cost saving exercise the the marketing and PR departments didn't find out in time...

[emony.livejournal.com]

I was so furious about it today at work, the boys (who joke about everything ever from Hitler to disabled people) only made one joke, and even then it was quite cautious, tame one. Mind you, I had warned them that the red film of rage was over my eyes and I couldn't be held responsible for my actions.

I got home and checked the remaining Mars chocolate I had - bought some weeks ago, thankfully it's within the "safe" period. But it was touch and go - the sell-by date for the pack of ripples, of which I had one left, was 30th September. One more day ... Eek :(

[emony.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it must've been cost cutting. There's really no other reason why anyone would do this. And the PR and marketing departments were probably complicit in keeping it on the QT. Ahrg!