(no subject)

[lethargic_man]

Mars Bars, Marathon Snickers, Maltesers, Bounty, Minstrels and Milky Way, and the ice-cream versions of all of the above, are no longer vegetarian, for any products with a best before end date after 1 October.

ETA: ...but, astonishingly, it appears they're still kosher.

Comments

[zsero.livejournal.com]

They're not adding anything, they're just diversifying their sourcing. They buy whey from cheese makers ("blessed are the cheese makers"), to whom it's a waste product. Until now they have bought only from suppliers whose whey is strictly vegetarian, but as of now they've expanded the list of whom they'll buy from, so it's possible that some of their whey might come from cheese makers who use animal rennet. That is, they've stopped boycotting those suppliers.

The reason the whey is still kosher is because the rennet isn't an intentional ingredient, and doesn't affect the product at all. The manufacturers don't add rennet to milk in order to produce whey, they add rennet to milk in order to produce cheese; the whey is what's left over. The whey tastes the same, and behaves the same way in all respects, whether it happens to contain rennet or not. Thus, any trace amounts of rennet it contains are neither intended nor desired, and don't affect its kashrut.

The cheese is a different story, because the rennet is added intentionally, and the cheese wouldn't be the same without it. So even if the actual proportion of animal rennet in the finished cheese is minute, it's still not kosher.