The Captain's Blog ™

This week saw a major victory for consumer power, as Mars UK announced a rapid reversal in policy following a major faux pas.

It recently revealed that the ingredients for many top-selling chocolate and ice cream products had been revised from 1 May to include non-vegetarian whey that contained rennet, which is sourced from the stomach lining of young calves.

In initially defending the move, Masterfoods (owner of Mars) bizarrely described it as a “principled decision”, in support of which the Corporate Affairs Manager issued this equally ludicrous statement: “If the customer is an extremely strict vegetarian, then we are sorry the products are no longer suitable, but a less strict vegetarian should enjoy our chocolate”. Duh?! Presumably along with the odd serving of veal?

The change affected a raft of consumer favourites including Mars bars, Twix, Maltesers, Bounty, Milky Way, Minstrels and all ice-cream versions of those products.

Following over 6,000 consumer complaints in less than a week, receipt of a petition signed by 40 MPs and strong objections from the Vegetarian Society, Mars showed belated good sense by reversing its decision. In doing so, Mars UK’s Managing Director acknowledged that the change had been a mistake and issued a public apology.

The recipes will be changed back “immediately”, which is great news for the UK’s vegetarians - who number over 3 million – plus many others who may consider rennet (now they know what it is) to be an equally objectionable ingredient.

In which context, you may wish to note that the inclusion or otherwise of rennet is the reason why some cheeses are labelled as being suitable for vegetarians, whilst others aren’t.

I should mention at this point that I’m vegan, which means that I try my best to avoid all animal-derived foods and products, including dairy products. It’s actually a very easy lifestyle to maintain these days, with alternatives being readily available for most popular animal-based products (including milk, cheese, cream, ice-cream, custard, eggs, meat, mince, nuggets, sausages, etc). My personal top tip and favourite food retailer is Redwood Foods, who sell direct to the public online as well as through health food shops like Holland & Barrett.

A bit of related trivia: the director of the film “Babe” became vegetarian as a direct result of observing the intelligence of the pig who played the star role.

More trivia: Carlsberg is vegan, Stella Artois isn’t. Equally, other beers, wines and spirits are vegetarian, whilst others aren’t. Why? It’s all to do with the choice of materials that are used to remove impurities during the brewing / manufacturing process.

Vegetarian and vegan resources for more info:

- The Vegetarian Society
- The Vegan Society (whose site needs work!)
- Viva!