UK Gelatin
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, is a degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of cattle causing the brain to appear as a sponge. The cattle then begin acting abnormally and eventually have to be killed. BSE can be transmitted to humans if they consume raw meat from an infected cow or if one consumes the eyeballs, spinal tissue, or the brain. This disease is known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Another disease similar to BSE, which is found in sheep, is Scrapie. Scrapie has been around for nearly two hundred years. It is presumed that the Scrapie agent jumped species and moved into cattle when sheep offal, leftover parts of butchered animals, were ground up and used as a protein supplement in cattle feed and the subsequently fed to cattle.
Gelatin is considered safe for human consumption since its preparation involves a chemical process that destroys BSE infectivity. BSE-infectiousness is also destroyed during cooking and baking. Gelatin is manufactured primarily from the hides of pigs and the bones of cattle. During processing, these source materials are exposed to extremely harsh conditions, including prolonged exposure to highly acid or alkaline solutions. Gelatin is used in a wide variety of consumer and medical products regulated by the FDA. These products range from candies and desserts to vaccines, drugs, medical devices, dietary supplements and cosmetics.
In the unlikely event of any initial contamination of raw material, the gelatin manufacturing process would reduce BSE activity. The steps are as follows one hundred times by degreasing, ten times by acid demineralization, one hundred times by alkaline purification, one hundred times by washing, filtration, and ion exchange, and one hundred times by sterilization. Therefore, the combined effect of the processing stages gives a person a one in one billion chance of contracting BSE. The gelatin production process is efficient enough to remove and or inactivate minimal remaining infectivity.
As a safety precaution, the use of UK bovine raw material for the manufacture of gelatin for food, animal feed, pharmaceutical, medical and cosmetic uses is not permitted under certain UK and EU legislation. All UK produced bone gelatin intended for these uses is made from non-UK raw materials. The UK manufacturing sites have to be registered with the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods (MAFF) and regular inspections confirm that strict controls are met. These controls include full trace ability of raw materials. Consequently, UK produced bone gelatin can be considered to be the best controlled and monitored of any gelatin produced in the world, providing maximum reassurance to consumers.
The use of horses for human consumption dates back to the earliest use of animals for human consumption. Horses are used for food in many counties but are also considered inhumane in other countries. In the United States specifically, horsemeat is not the norm for consumed meat. There seems to be a problem that has arisen. It is suspected that horses being slaughtered at horse slaughtering factories are not the most up to date, pain free for the horse, and human as people suspect them to be like beef kill floors.
Mad Cow Disease, scientifically referred to as (BSE) Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, is a disease that affects those humans who eat the meat from infected cows. Mad Cow Disease is one of several fatal brain diseases called (TSE) Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy. (USDA) There was evidence of a new illness resembling the sheep disease scrapie. It was technically named BSE but quickly acquired the mad cow tag because of the way infected cattle behave. (CNN) In 1997, there was an award given to Stanley Prusiner, for concluding that a distorted protein called a prion was responsible for Mad Cow Disease, noted the long incubation period made it difficult to distinguish (Bryant). Another name for Mad Cow Disease is the new variant Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), similar to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is a deadly brain illness that strikes about one per million per year (USDA) due to genetic or unknown causes while the vCJD is contracted from eating infected cows (USDA). Both CJD and vCJD are so similarly named because of the similar effects from the illness.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal neuro-degenerative, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of the family Cervidae (Hamir, et.al., 2006). The family Cervidae includes mule deer, Odocolileus hemionus, white-tailed deer, Odocolileus virginianus, Rocky Mountain elk, Cervus elaphus nelsoni, and moose, Alces alces shirasi, among others (Sigurdon & Aguzzi, 2007). CWD is a prion disease, meaning it is a protein caused infection, that occurs naturally in the deer family (Song & Lawson, 2009). This protein is suspected to be an abnormal isoform (PrPSc) of the naturally occurring host prion protein (PrPC) (Blanchong, et. Al., 2009). Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), mad cow disease, is a similar prion effecting cattle as CWD affects Cervidae. Although, scientists are not sure of transmission route it is suspected that CWD is transmissible and infectious through direct contact with infected individuals or through environmental contamination (Song & Lawson, 2009). Tests have been performed showing susceptibility of altered mice to oral transmission, mimicking the suspected route of entry, and the incubation appears slower but lasts longer with oral infection (Trifilo, et.al., 2007). The approximate time from the initial infection to death is three years.
Normally, cows in Northern Europe in places such as Denmark live normal lives simply grazing on grass, and existing. However, there have been recent changes that have disrupted this normal activity. Generally the bluetongue virus (spread by Culicoides imicola, a biting midge) has been confined to Southern Europe and other places around the Mediterranean. But with the increase in temperature throughout the area, the midge has been allowed to migrate northward. This new pest is a nuisance and causes lots of difficulties to farmers in the area. When a cow contracts this disease, they usually also receive oral ulcers, salivation, stiffness, fever and eventually the inevitable- death (Merck Veterinary Manual NP). Because of the increase in temperature, midges have spread around the globe infecting livestock and creating terrible trouble for many farmers.
Recycled animal tissue, which had been routinely fed to British dairy cows as a protein supplement, was identified as the source of the infection. The European Commission's Scientific Veterinary Committee and the world control body, the Fédération Internationale des Epizooties (FNE) believes that BSE was originally spread from sheep's brains infected with scrapie and that its spread was accidentally accelerated by the ingestion of brain tissue taken from cows that had become infected with BSE.
Chronic Wasting Disease is a highly transmissible, deadly neurodegenerative disease that affects cervids in North America (Belay et al., 2004; Saunders et al., 2012). There are only four types of cervid that are known to get this disease which include elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and moose (Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance). It has been classified has a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), otherwise known as a prion disease (Belay et al., 2004). A prion is an irregular, pathogenic agent that causes abnormal folding of specific proteins called prion proteins. These proteins are mostly located in the brain (Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance). The abnormal folding of this protein causes neurodegenerative diseases in a variety of species including humans, sheep, cattle, and deer (Abrams et al., 2011).
This debate revolves around compounds found in real food, such as phytochemicals, Lycopene, and flavonoid which come from plants, tomatoes , and blueberries and have been proven to lower rates of prostate cancer, and lower rates of diabetes. Also, since soylent formula can be composed at home that alone brings major issues. Making Soylent at home without knowledge can cause major issue to the body and a overdose or underdose can have major effects that might put people in the hospital, and since the formula is freely online this nightmare is more real than the Soylent dream itself. As a result, it 's doing more damage to the general public rather than its original purpose. Hope Warshaw, from the Washington Post stated that “food selection and preparation and the act of eating are woven into the fabric of our culture, traditions, celebrations and self-expression” meaning that we eat for the pleasure of eating something new and exciting and the to express ourselves not to feel
Some packaged meat products may contain casein as a binder so make it a habit to read the label
Genetic modification is very harmful for human beings; it has a huge negative effect on animals’ and humans’ health. The manipulation of the genes of crops and animals may cause health damage. “Animal toxicity studies have shown that genetically modified foods may toxically affect several organs and systems” (Arvanitoyannis, 162, 2011). These studies concluded that genetically modified foods are dangerous and they may become one of the most harmful issues in the world. According to Arvanitoyannis research genetically modified foods cause some common toxic effects such as: hepatic, pancreatic, renal or reproductive effects and may alter the hematological, biochemical and immuno...
Center for food Safety. “New peer reviewed study on gmo pig feed reveals adverse effects.” N.P., 11 June 2013
In April 2008 the In Vitro Consortium first met at the Norwegian Food Research Institute. The consortium is “an international alliance of environmentally concerned scientists striving to facilitate the establishment of a large scale process industry for the production of muscle tissue for human consumption through concerted R&D efforts and attraction of funding fuels to these efforts.”Meat in both its production and its consumption has a number of destructive effects on not only the environment and humans but also live stock. Some of these effects are antibiotic resistant bacteria due to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock, meat-borne pathogens (e. coli), and diseases associated with diets rich in animal fats (diabetes). Meat consumption all over the world is increasing making meat a global issue. As a result many researchers have been trying to create meat substitutes to minimize the impact of consumption. Substitutes, to date, have been made from soybeans, peas, or even from animal tissues grown in a culture.
Simple household items such as lotions, shampoos and cosmetics aren’t very expensive and are within reach for the public, yet the public is not knowledgeable of the fact that the products that they use everyday are put through a series of tests which involve the use of harmless animals. Several large commercial companies do not make products for animals; they decide that using these harmless creatures for the testing of their products, could be cause to be harmful to animals still go forward with these types of procedures on an everyday basis. Although these animals are unable to defend themselves or signs of any form of consent for the near death procedures, these companies find this as a cheap solution for testing their products before placing them on the market. There are many other alternatives to testing animals such as embryonic stem cell research. Animal experimentation is wrong and it can be avoided but companies which are greedy for money chose not to.
It still comes as a surprise to me that with all the technology in today’s society, we are still relying on animals for cosmetic research. Some people think that it is acceptable and even justified to test on mere animals rather than risk hurting people. So, for these kinds of people, animal testing makes perfect sense. However, in my opinion, animals are living creatures and have the right to live out their lives as nature intended rather than simply surviving in cages while being poked and prodded with whatever scientists fancy. I think it is depressing and sort of grotesque that I am using products that have been tested on animals that are even commonly bred as our pets. So, I began my research to find out what companies still test on animals, why they do so, and what other alternatives they could use in place of animal testing.
Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)
The name of the creature responsible is Yersinia Pestinis (Clones). The pathogen travels from person to person pneumonically (Black Death). This sickness can even effect animals such as cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens. A large amount of sheep died, so many died that there was a European wool shortage (History).