More to it all than meets the eye

By Bindu Jacob

NEW DELHI, JUNE 4. The odds are stacked heavily against you. Staying vegetarian either by choice or because of religious convictions is becoming more and more difficult in a city like Delhi where the market is flooded with ``adulterated vegetarian'' products.

For a ``vegan'', the pitfalls are endless. The booby trap begins with the most innocent-looking products -- vegetable sandwiches, kulchas, paranthas, noodles, bread and buns. Others on the ``horror list" include chocolates, chewing gum, colas, alcohol, chyawanprash, ice-cream and even the silver foil used for decorating sweets.

These startling facts have been brought to light by the Animal Welfare Board of India under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The Board has come out with a publication listing products perceived widely as vegetarian but actually containing animal extracts.

Silver foil or ``varak'' used for decorating sweets has more than just a pleasing look to it. It is made by placing thin metal strips between steaming intestines of freshly slaughtered animals. The metal is then pounded between ox-gut and the sheets are carefully transferred in special paper for marketing.

Breads, buns and kulchas too are often glazed with eggs, melted fat or oil. But the story does not end here. Calcium phosphate of animal origin -- bones -- is used at times to improve the dough- making properties of bread. Chewing gum, usually made of vegetable gum, may contain glycerine, gelatin and emulsifiers of animal origin, the Board states.

Shellac, made of lac for which lakhs of insects are killed, is used in preparation of a popular brand of chocolates. Chyawanprash manufactured by a certain company contains powdered antlers obtained illegally from killed deer. For vegetarians who enjoy their drink, a majority of the beers available in the market are refined using animal ingredients. Even some well-known brands of whisky, vodka and rum use animal ingredients.

Products of daily use are no exception. Paint and shoe brushes are always made from pig bristles, pulled out in clumps from fully conscious animals. Indian paint brushes are made from mongoose hair. Camel, goat and squirrel hair is also used. Fine artwork brushes use hair from thousands of squirrels.

A leading film manufacturing company buys 80 million pounds of cattle bones every year to produce gelatin for film. Safety matches contain animal-based adhesive on the head. Shuttlecocks are made from duck-wing feathers as well as leather, gelatin and animal glue. The list goes on....

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