Silver Foils are not Vegetarian

The silver foils are not very expensive. They are sold by weight.
Ordinarily, you can buy a packet of 160 foils for a price between Rs.100 to
200. That is, approximately one rupee per foil. Not only the sweets, now a
days it is also applied on fruits. Some Ayurvedic medicines also are wrapped
in silver foils.
They are made by hammering thin sheets of silver in middle of booklets made
of a bull’s intestines. In other words, after slaughtering a bull, quickly
his intestines are removed, and sold to the manufacturers of foils. The
skins made of old intestines are of no use. Even one-day-old intestines can
not be used, because within a few hours they stiffen.
The foil manufacturer removes blood and stools from the intestines, and cuts
them into pieces. Then he puts one piece over another, making a booklet out
of it. At his home, or in the factory, he puts one silver (or gold) sheet
in-between each page. Then he hammers it hard until those metal sheets turn
into thin wafers.
The intestines of bulls are so strong, that even repeated hammering do not
destroy them, or they do not let the foils move around inside. Because of
the hammering, some tissues of the intestine mix with the foils. After that
the foil manufacturer sells the bundle of foils to the sweets manufacturers.
Some small foil manufacturers sell the foils to the temples.
This foil is not only dirty, it also is non-vegetarian. Even the meat-eaters
do not eat intestines. Use of these foils turn even sweets into
non-vegetarian food. A few years ago the Indian Airlines learned about this,
and since then stopped using them on the sweets served in their planes.
Source of Silver Foil in Sweets
Indian Airlines, the domestic air-carrier of India had issued instructions
to its suppliers to supply sweet without silver foil called VARAKH. Do you
know why? Silver is widely used for various purposes in the market today.
Silver is considered precious and its utility is enormous. The reason behind
this is that silver reflects back 95% of the light energy that falls on it.
The silver foils used for edible purposes is called VARAKH So what’s so
special about VARAKH? If you keenly observe this VARAKH under a microscope
don be perturbed if you happen to see traces of blood, stools and saliva of
a cattle or ox.
VARAKH is a silver foil and we have no second questions on this, but to
prepare this VARAKH important parts of the CATTLE/OX is made use of.
Intestines of Cattle/OX are obtained from the slaughterhouse. This is
obtained after butchering to death the cattle/ox for beef and the part,
which cannot be consumed: the intestines are pulled out of the animal and
handed over to the manufacturers of VARAKH. Before handing over the
intestines, they are washed in the slaughterhouse to get rid of the blood
and other remains on these intestines in the limited facility that is
present in the slaughterhouse. We are not sure how neatly this job is
carried out. Intestines are cut into small pieces and then are bound
together as pages in a notebook.
A silver block is placed in the middle of these bound intestines, and the
whole thing is placed in a leather bag and sealed. Experts, who know how to
make VARAKH, pound the bag with wooden sticks, till the entire bag flattens
out. The silver block would by this time be turned into silver foil. This
Silver foil would now be separated from the intestine pack and will be
placed on paper.
This is VARAKH, which reaches the market ready for use. Even staunch
vegetarians, who shy away from egg, unknowingly consume this as a part of
sweet, pan and arecanut. Some unknowingly consume this because of the
additional taste that VARAKH provides.
Now the question is “Why the intestines of the cattle/ox? Why not something
else?” The reason behind using the intestines of the cattle/ox for preparing
the VARAKH is because of the elasticity of the intestines.
They do not get cut even after a severe pounding.
This aspect is brought out in the magazine “Beauty without cruelty” and the
Television show of Maneka Gandhi, “Heads and Tails”. In India, on an average
an estimate indicates that 2,75,000 kilos of “VARAKH” is consumed. Can you
estimate how many cattle/ox are sacrificed for just a bit of taste? If you
are surprised as I am, after reading this article please inform as many as
possible so as to ensure that we unknowingly don’t consume beef.
Pan
By now, a pan-lover vegetarian person may have eaten equivalent of many
miles of oxen intestines! For them, here is an another bad news – the Chuna
that they apply on pan, also is not vegetarian! That is made from the shells
of living insects. These insects are taken from the ocean, killed, and
removed from the shell. Then the shells are softened in water, dried, and
ground into white powder. When you put this Chuna in your mouth, you are
participating in killing of many insects. This is no different from taking
life of a goat or a pig. Everyone wants to live, no one likes the pain of
death.
Indian Sweets and Varakh
Silver foil, or varakh, as it is generally known in India, adds glitter to
Indian sweets, betel nut (Supari), Paan (betel-leaf), and fruits. It is also
used in Ayurvedic medicines. The silver-topped sweet is even served as
prashad in many temples and on auspicious and religious occasions. Varakh is
also used in flavoured syrups as in Kesar (saffron) syrup.
If one observes Varakh under a microscope one will find traces of blood,
stools and saliva of a cattle or an ox. Varakh is not derived from an animal
source. However, a crucial material of animal origin, ox-gut, is used in its
manufacture. This ox-gut is obtained from the slaughterhouse.
The intestine (ox-gut), smeared with blood and mucus, is pulled out from the
slaughtered animal by the butcher at the slaughterhouse, and sold for the
specific purpose. This is then taken away to be cleaned and used in the
manufacture of Varakh.
The gut of an average cow, measuring 540 inches in length and 3 inches in
diameter, is cut open into a piece measuring 540″ x 10″. From this, strips
of 9″ x 10″ are cut to give approximately 60 pieces of ox-gut, which are
then piled on top of each other and bound to form a book of 171 leaves.
Next, small thin strips of silver are placed between the sheets and the book
slipped into a leather pouch. These bundles are hammered continuously for a
day to produce extremely thin foils of silver of 3″ x 5″.
The leather and ox-gut, being supple, can withstand the intense manual
hammering for up to 8 hours a day till such time as the silver is beaten to
the desired thickness. When ready, the foil is carefully lifted from between
the leaves of ox-gut and placed between sheets of paper to be sold to the
sweet shops. A booklet of 160 foils weighs approximately 10 grams and costs
few hundred rupees.
To make a single booklet of 171 sheets, the guts of 3 cows are used. And the
yield per book is generally 160 foils of silver, the rest of which may be
damaged or unfit for use. Thus one book, used on an average of 300 days of
the year yields approximately 48,000 foils of silver which means that each
ox-gut yields an estimated 16,000 foils.
The leather used for the pouch to hold the book (made from ox-gut), is
cowhide or calf leather, and uses about 232 sq. inches of material. Assuming
the size of an average cowhide to be 18 sq. ft or 2,600 sq. Inches, the
yield per hide will be approximately 10 leather pouches.
Usually 4 foils are used per kilograms of sweets and the ox-gut of one cow
is used to produce foil for approximately 4,000 kilograms of sweets. It is
estimated that the average consumption of sweets by a middle class family of
four in India is about 100 kilograms per year.
Thus, an average middle class Indian family of four consuming approximately
100 kg of sweets per year for forty years consumes silver foil produced with
the gut of 3 cows and one-tenth of a cowhide!
In India 275 tons of silver is transformed into Varakh that utilises the
intestines of 516,000 cows and calf leather of 17,200 animals each year.
# – Prahladananda Swami – 27/7/09; 8:03:13 PM

Ghee or Animal Fat?

By Maneka Gandhi for The Bihar Times [1] on 18 Jul 2009
(Bihar, India) Some years ago it was discovered that owners of Vanaspathi
oils were putting cow and pig lard into the oil. There was a furor which
died down after a few months and no one knows till today what happened to
the Jains who owned the enterprise ? but I have little doubt that they got
off and a few bureaucrats and policemen are richer.
Ghee (from Sanskrit gh?ta meaning “sprinkled”) is clarified butter, sacred
to the gods. On June 13, a ghee manufacturing unit was raided by the health
officers and police of Agra . Hundreds of tins of ghee were found in the
Jharna nullah locality . The so called ghee was being manufactured from
animal fat boiled in huge iron pans. “25 big drums, 150 tins and four
furnaces, knives and country pistols were recovered from the site” a police
official said. “Animal hides of cows, monkeys, donkeys, horses and dogs
hanging by the trees and bones littered showed the scale of manufacturing
being carried out clandestinely for years.”
Now comes the standard Indian part ? “Police said at least 50 people must
have been working there in the sheds but none could be caught, probably
because the information about the raid was leaked to them.”
Agra Municipal corporation?s animal husbandry department Chief B.S. Verma
said that residents of the locality had complained for years about the
spurious manufacturing unit but the department could not find the unit.
TV channels aired footage filmed at ghee manufacturing plants. The footage
confirmed that across India animals were being rendered and their fat added
to ghee. The ghee plants had dead animals all around, animal fat boiling in
big drums and slabs of fat hanging from the ceilings.
Members of ISKCON collected samples of commercial ghee in Pune and sent them
to be tested at the Anatech Laboratory and research centre in Bangalore. The
tests based on the Fancier-Transbraned Infrared spectrum Replication showed
beyond a doubt that the ghee contained animal fat. This laboratory which has
analyzed hundreds of ghees said that of all the brands in India, Amul was
the best brand for ghee and butter, with even Nestle adulterated with about
5% vegetable oil fats. They said that most ghee, including Amul, was a
mixture of cow and buffalo milk
Unfortunately most labs in India do not have the equipment to test. They can
simply say that the ghee is adulterated. Why is ghee being adulterated?
Firstly, because there is no milk. India prides itself on being the world?s
largest producer of leather so all the cows are being killed off rapidly to
service the hundreds of leather units in Chennai, Kanpur and Kolkata ? which
kill lakhs of cows and calves. Recent raids have found that only 30% of the
“milk” we drink, is milk. The rest is a mixture of soap, urea, earthworm
fat, oil and whiteners. So if there is no milk, how does one get the ghee?
450,000 tonnes of ghee are supposedly made every year, 80% of which is eaten
and the rest offered to the gods in rituals that include marriage and death.
This is an impossible figure ? the actual ghee would be less than a quarter.
The second reason is that milk products like ghee only have a 5% profit
margin so the only way to be profitable is to use animal fat.
If you insist on ghee make your own. Boil milk. Keep taking the cream off.
When the cream is cold, take a wooden stick and churn it. The water
separates and the rest becomes unsalted butter. Melt the butter over low
heat gradually in a heavy-bottomed pot. Do not stir. Cook until it is a
clear golden liquid. It may bubble and foam may form on top which you?ll
need to skim off and discard. Remove from heat while the liquid is a clear
gold. Any darker and it?s overcooked. Take a large sieve and line it with 4
sheets of cheesecloth or muslin. Place it over a clean dry pot. While still
hot, carefully strain the ghee through the cheesecloth-lined sieve into the
pot. Transfer the strained ghee carefully into a clean glass jar and shut
tightly. Ghee at room temperature looks semi-solid. Ghee can be stored for
extended periods without refrigeration, provided it is kept in an airtight
container to prevent oxidation. Always use a clean utensil to scoop out
ghee. # – Prahladananda Swami – 22/7/09; 7:04:38 PM

By Madhava Smullen on 25 Jan 2008

[1]

Image: Gavin Bell

We live in a world of enticingly packaged, processed foods where nobody really cares what they’re eating, so long as it looks good. As a child, I remember seeing a guest on a TV chat show say that they were allergic to various products, and therefore had to check the ingredients on everything when they went shopping. “Oh my God!” the host exclaimed in horror. “That must be such a pain! I could never do that!”

More recently, I was traveling in California with some friends and decided to visit Universal Studios in Hollywood. When hunger struck, we searched for the most vegetarian restaurant we could find and discovered one with a delightful buffet-style line featuring a variety of salads, pasta and pizza.

The girl at the counter filled up our plates with pasta once she’d let us know, none too confidently, that it didn’t contain eggs.

Then the fun really started.

“Do you know if there’s animal rennet in the cheese?” My friend Janmastami asked.

The girl looked blank. He tried to rephrase the question. “What is the cheese made with?”

This time she stared at him with an expression reserved for the severely mentally retarded. Her jaw slackened a little. Her eyes opened wide.

“Cheese is made with milk,” she said. “Milk comes from a cow.”

If only it were that simple. As a vegetarian, I may find this kind of routine ignorance funny – at least in retrospect – but it doesn’t inspire confidence in our eating establishments. Food companies themselves, while presenting a slightly more sophisticated front, aren’t much better. For a start, there is no law in any country that requires retailers to mark their products as vegetarian.

When you do find a “vegetarian” label, it’s simply a voluntary practice on the part of the manufacturer, and doesn’t reflect any universally agreed upon standard. Different manufacturers have their own opinion on what is or isn’t vegetarian, so even if a product announces to you that it’s fine for you to eat, it may actually contain, for example, animal-derived glycerine. Certain labels, like that of the Vegetarian Society in the UK, are reliable – but ISKCON devotees must be sure to double check, as they generally consider eggs suitable for vegetarians.

So what can you do? Shock that poor TV host from the eighties, and check your ingredients every time. It’s the only way. Checking once and creating a list of “safe” products isn’t reliable, as manufacturers often change the ingredients in a product without warning – for instance, a rennet-free cheese may start using rennet again at any time.

But you’re still not in the safe zone yet. When you do check your ingredients, you’ll probably find that most of them might as well be written in Arabic. Packages don’t inform you that your ice-cream contains a gelling agent derived from animal ligaments, skins, tendons, bones and hooves. No, that would take up far too much space, and ruin your appetite. So instead, they use a neat little word like “gelatine.” You might be surprised to know how many ISKCON members don’t know this – a disturbing thought.

Here are some more common animal ingredients you should watch out for:

Cochineal, also known as E120, is a red dye often used in ice-cream, yogurt, glacé cherries, jams and drinks. Sound delicious? You’ll stop licking your lips after you’ve heard that it’s made from the crushed female un-hatched larva of the Cochineal beetle.

Animal rennet is an enzyme made from the stomach of calves and lambs, and is often used in cheese. Fortunately, it’s usually listed in ingredients as “animal rennet,” since rennet can also be made from vegetables.

Gylcerine is a type of animal fat that is often blended with vegetable fats. Many soap products contain it, and do not always state whether it is plant or animal-based. If in doubt, contact the manufacturer. Glycerine is also found in some chewing gums.

Lecithin is found in egg yolks, the tissues and organs of many animals, and some vegetables such as soybeans and corn. It’s often used in butter and margarine, and other foods high in fat and oils. If it’s vegetarian, the ingredients will state “Soy Lecithin.” Luckily, Lecithin is usually made from soy these days.

Beware of the phrase “Natural flavors,” on a product. Sounds friendly, doesn’t it? But often, these will be derived from beef or other meats. Contact the company and ask them what they use in their natural flavors. They may not always tell you, but the more people that do this, the more they’ll be likely to start making it available knowledge.

The world of processed foods is a strange one that seems to be intent on making sure you don’t know what you’re putting in your mouth. Today’s world, as Srila Prabhupada’s guru Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati so succinctly put it, is “No place for a gentleman.” But while you’re here, you would do well to brush up on your knowledge of animal ingredients.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have a comprehensive list [2] that should get you started. Good sources of additional information are the Consumer’s Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients and the Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, available at most libraries or bookstores. And of course, if you have a question regarding an ingredient in a product, just call the manufacturer.

# – Prahladananda Swami – 26/1/08

Hare Krishna!
All Glories to Radha Shyamsundar.
All Glories to Krishna Balaram.
All Glories to Gaur Nitai
All glories to Sri Sri Panchatattva                 3rd August 2007
Respectful  Prabhuji ,
Please accept my most humble obeisance at  your lotus feet.
All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga; All glories to Srila Pabhupada.
This has reference to the  sample of one tin of unopened ghee sent  to us
at Bangalore to testing for adulteration with animal fat.
There had been some reports of adulteration of popular brands of ghee with
animal fat in the news network. In this connection my wife Devaki Madhavi
Devi Dasi  at Vrindavan  had requested me to test the sample of one popular
ghee used by the temple kitchen and the same sample was sent to us, last
week through Archak Prabhu , who as kind enough to deliver the same to us.
The sample has been of Dynamix Cow Ghee, M/s.Schreider Dynamix Dairies Ltd,
Pune.
We have got the sample tested and it has proved positive , that is it
contains animal fat beyond any doubt, as per the said testing house.
We give below the following observations and information gathered for your
kind reference in relation to ghee etc in India.
1.We contacted several testing lab with this request and finally zeroed on
one testing house M/s.Anatech Laboratory and research center. This decision
was based on the fact that whereas most others had outdated testing
facility which could only  tell of adulteration with other fats and were
not  able to specifically and categorically state that animal fat has ben
mixed.
2.We have been told that the  test is based on the Fancier-Transbraned
Infra -red spectrum Replication test.  and is an accurate test.
3.Our sample: Even the physical observation of the sample shows very
clearly that there is adulteration. There is no homogeneity. Any ghee would
be uniformly homogenous, and not half semi-solid and the other bottom half
fully caked hard.
This most likely contains about 15% animal fat . The quantitative analysis
can be done but this needs further testing and higher cost.
4. Incidentally the said labarotary tests several milk and milks products
for private and government agencies. In his experience they have tested
several products and national brands.
Their observation is as follows:
i.Of all the brand in India Amul is the best brand for ghee and butter and
all milks products.
ii.Even Nestle is adulterated with about 5% vegetable oil fats.
iii.Most ghee is a mixture of Cows and Buffolo milk in the branded segment.
iv.Nilgiris of Bangalore which is famous for its ‘pure’ Cows ghee brand as
per this laboratory was initially pure cows ghee but now is mixed with
buffolo milk.  However Nilgiris and Nandidni of Bangalore does not have any
adulteration with vegetable oil fat.
v.The ghee constituents of leading brands contains 65% cows milk and the
rest buffalo milk.
5.Incidentally it is possible to test if a given sample  of milk contains
pure cows milk . There is a particular harmone which is contained only in
cows milk and this can be detected by a sophisticated  test , with a
certain accuracy.
Remarks:As most milk products like ghee has only about 5% margin as Amul
maintains a strict price factor which the other competitor find hard to
beat. Hence  their way to profitability is adulteration with vegetable oil
and for larger profits they adulterate with animal fat.
The remark of the testing house with  his large experience is that if one
needs to  have pure Cow’s Ghee the only way is to make  inhouse as even the
best brand like Amul though pure milk contains buffalo milk.
For your kind information and reference.
We hope the above is in order.
Your  humble servant,
Hari Purushotam Das
(Hari Babu. K.)
Our E Mail Address: supriyae@vsnl.com
haribabu@vsnl.com # – Prahladananda Swami – 4/8/07; 2

by HG Kripamoya prabhu
Srila Prabhupada consistently stressed how important it is to
understand the gifts of nature and of God’s plan for humans – who
would think that cow-dung is an important part of it all?
Today I learned of how a small amount of traditional guidance saved
the lives of many children in Africa. It was a fascinating story told
to me by a visiting old friend and I thought I’d share it with you.
Vidura das, an Irish devotee of Krishna, lived in Kisumu, Kenya for
many years. He and his African wife Esther set up a large-scale food
distribution programme for needy people. And in northern Kenya there
were plenty of needy people. What concerned him most was that there
were many children who died young. “We discovered that the very area
where we were living had the highest infant mortality rate in the
world,” he explained.
To distribute food as a religious act, and yet to watch parents grieve
over their dead children was an intolerable situation for a
compassionate devotee like Vidura, so he started to ask questions
around the area. Dirty drinking water was the obvious culprit, but
when he enquired of the mothers why they did not boil the water they
replied that they did not have the money to buy charcoal, the commonly
used fuel.
Remembering that the guru of the Hare Krishna movement had always
praised the cow for providing, amongst many other gifts, the
sustainable fuel of dung, he explained to the women that Indians have
for centuries mixed dung with straw and dried it to create an
everlasting supply of good quality fuel. But the local Africans needed
to be encouraged to refrain from slaughtering their cows if they were
going to create a sustainable fuel source. They also had to overcome
the prejudice – given to their tribe decades ago by Christian
missionaries – that dung was dirty and never to be touched.
After some period of encouragement, mainly to women who already
trusted him as ‘Father Vidura,’ some families complied followed by
many more. “Eventually health workers were coming up from Nairobi to
see why children in our area were living longer than children
throughout Kenya,” Vidura said. The project was an overwhelming
success, and received endorsement by the tribal patriarchs, who, as
children, remembered their mothers talking of cow-dung as fuel in
their village but who had switched to the more expensive wood after
the missionaries had persuaded them to change. It was only a small
change to revert back to a more traditional fuel – and dung has to be
the cheapest and most abundant thing in the world – but it made a
world of difference.
Vidura went on to introduce the spinning wheel and the loom, and is
now in dialogue with President Musoveni of Uganda to introduce hemp as
a major crop for the villagers who live around Lake Victoria.
# – Prahladananda Swami – 22/7/07