hair raising facts

Someone just sent me this link and I just had to share. Our friends at Suma Wholefoods stopped using their longstanding baker over just this issue regarding the Veganess of their bread. We're really happy that they're now eating our bread in their worker canteen.

The full article can be seen here on the bbc website but read on for some off-putting facts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ethicalman/2009/12/does_your_daily_bread_cont...

"I am not going that far but I have certainly developed a mania for reading food labels and there are all sorts of unexpected animal additives.

Most people know that gelatine is produced from animal skin and bones and that the rennet used in some cheeses comes from calves' stomachs. But did you know that bone char (from cow bones) is still occasionally used to whiten some sugars or that some wines and many beers (particularly real ales) include isinglass - a substance obtained from the swim bladders of fish?

Which brings me back to the possibility that human hair may be used in bread. A vegetarian friend alerted me to the existence of an animal-based flour additive called L-Cysteine. It is an amino acid which is used as a flour improver. It is known as E920 and is permitted for use in all biscuits, breads and cakes except those that claim to be wholemeal.

The problem for a would-be vegan is that traditionally L-Cysteine is produced from feathers, pig bristles and sometimes even human hair. These days L-Cysteine can also be produced synthetically but apparently human hair remains one of the richest sources of this amino acid - it makes up about 14% of your hair - and there is a small industry in China making the additive from hair clippings.

There's even a paper on the web written by a Rabbi about whether L-Cysteine from human hair is kosher. Apparently it is - so long as the hair in question was not harvested from dead bodies."