Holy Cow! Getting into the Thick of Things

June 7, 2012

MALAYSIA – Before swallowing your gel capsule, have you already read its ingredients? More specifically, do you know where the gel is made from?

Chances are you haven’t.

Studies have found that people don’t really read labels and that half of adults in outpatient settings misunderstand at least some of the instructions on a drug’s bottle labels. Furthermore, some labels were found to be incompletely and awkwardly written which adds to the confusion.

Gelatin, an ubiquitous substance, is also one of the most controversial in medical science. A primary ingredient in Gummy Bears and a thickening agent for puddings and yogurt, gelatin is used in the pharmaceutical industry to carry bitter-tasting or stomach-irritating drugs. In most cases, gel is manufactured from cattle bones and pig skins.

With the proliferation of health supplements, drugs and even food derived from bovine sources, the only question to the Muslim and vegan consumer is, can one use foods containing gelatin? The answer is short – it depends on the source.

Cited from The Star, one of Malaysia’s leading newspapers, a reader shared her concerns on gelatin-based food supplements. Interested in purchasing a health supplement to treat a knee-joint problem, the reader emailed the company only to realise that its contents (gelatin and chondroitin) do not adhere to her religious beliefs and that they had no other alternatives available.

Having read this particular concern, the Ministry of Health’s pharmaceuticals division responded in a statement that they are monitoring the labels through post marketing surveillance activities, which include continuous inspection on the labels and package inserts of the registered products . They, however, recommend consumers and patients to read the label of products before consumption.

Muslims can only consume gelatins that carry Halal approval.

Recently, fish and vegetable by-products, such as agar derived from seaweeds, have also been considered because they eliminate some of the religious and dietary obstacles surrounding gelatin consumption.

On a different note, are these products safe to take in light of the recent Mad Cow Disease scare?

Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations prohibit the use of brains and spinal cords of cows from countries where mad cow disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) has been found. Those organs are considered highly infectious. There is no substantial evidence that gelatin carries BSE and there is no evidence BSE can be transmitted to humans through the product. In the end, avoiding gelatin is not a simple matter of watching for jiggly desserts. If you have gelatin allergies or religious or dietary restrictions, prepare for an intensive course of label-reading. It’s often referred to as “hydrolized animal protein” in non-food products.

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