Mars confectionary no longer vegetarian

Umar

Salaam everyone, Some information for all the chocolate lovers out there. You may have already heard about it but here's the list. Please pass this to as many people as possible. Jazaakallah.

An email/news update from Mars customer service sent to the Vegetarian Society:

No Mars chocolate brands produced from tomorrow onwards are vegetarian - This includes Galaxy, Mars, Bounty, Celebrations, Maltesers, Milky Way, Revels, Snickers, Topic and Twix.

“Due to a change in the ingredients used in our chocolate recipes from 1st May 2007 many of our products now contain whey. This is a by-product of the cheese making process and uses rennet derived from an animal source. Therefore we feel it is for individual vegetarians to judge whether they are comfortable in consuming cheese products that do not bear a vegetarian symbol; we would consider our products to fall into this same category.

Products that are currently in store or that you may have already purchased that carry a Best Before Date of 1st October or before are still suitable for your consumption, however if you have purchased any products with a best before after this date then we will be more than happy to refund the value of the product. Please see attached lists for further information.”

Products which may contain whey Derived from animal rennet (ie are not vegetarian) - HARAAM:
Confectionery:
Bounty ® Dark / Milk
Celebrations ®
Flyte®
Galaxy Ripple®
Galaxy Minstrels®
Galaxy ® Block/Caramel/Fruit & Hazelnut/ Hazelnut
Galaxy Promises ® Cocoa Crisp/ Caramel Crunch/ Roast Hazelnut/Rich Coffee
Maltesers ® Original / White
Mars Original ®
Mars Delight
Mars Planets®
Milky Way ® / Crispy rolls / Magic Stars
Revels®
Snickers®
Topic®
Tracker ®Chocolate Chip / Forest Fruit / Lemon / Roasted Nut
Twix®

Ice Cream:

Bounty ® Ice Cream
Galaxy ® Caramel Swirl Ice Cream / Vanilla / Triple Choc
Maltesers ® Ice Cream
Mars ® Ice Cream / Xtra Ice Cream
Snickers ® Ice Cream / Xtra Ice Cream
Products Which Are Not Suitable for Vegetarians:
Confectionery
M&M’s ® All Varieties
Skittles ® Sours / Rainbow

Vegetarian Suitable Product (OK for muslims (HALAAL)):

Confectionery:
Aquadrops ®
Skittles Fruit ®
Starburst ® Sours/Fruits/Strawberry
Tunes ® Blackcurrant/Cherry/Strawberry
Lockets ® Blackcurrant/ Extra Strong/ Honey & Lemon
Ice Cream:
Starburst® All: Varieties
Milk Drinks:
Mars ® Original Drink/ Extra Chocolate/ Thick Shake
Galaxy ® Smooth and Creamy/ Thick Shake
Maltesers ® Chocolate
Bounty Frappe®
Bounty Drink®
Powdered Drinks:
Galaxy ® Hot Chocolate/ Hot Chocolate With Caramel/ Hot Chocolate Bliss
Maltesers ® Hot Chocolate

Forum

You — Sun, 20 May 2007 - 04:03

[quote][size=18]Mars bars get veggie status back[/size]

Mars has abandoned plans to use animal products in its chocolate, and has apologised to "upset" vegetarians.

The firm had said it would change the whey used in some of its products from a vegetarian source to one with traces of the animal enzyme, rennet.

The Vegetarian Society organised a campaign against the move, asking members to voice their concerns to parent company Masterfoods.

Mars said it became "very clear, very quickly" that it had made a mistake.

In just one week, more than 6,000 people bombarded the company, which produces the Mars, Snickers, Maltesers and Galaxy brands, with phone and e-mail complaints.

Forty MPs also signed a petition to voice their opposition.

Fiona Dawson, managing director of Mars UK, said the company had listened to customers and decided to reverse its decision.

"The consumer is our boss and we had lots of feedback from consumers who were unhappy about the change," Ms Dawson said.

"It became very clear, very quickly that we had made a mistake, for which I am sorry.

"There are three million vegetarians in the UK and not only did we disappoint them, but we upset a lot of the consumers."

[b]'Principled decision'[/b]

The Vegetarian Society had called the move by Mars "incomprehensible" and "a backward step" at a time when consumers were increasingly concerned about "the provenance of their food".

Mars replied that, by admitting its products were no longer suitable for "extremely strict vegetarians", it was making a "principled decision".

Now it insists it will begin changing its recipes back immediately.

Dr Annette Pinner, chief executive of the Vegetarian Society, said she was pleased Mars had been "honest enough" to admit it had "made a mistake".

"A Masterfoods representative has made contact with us and we are very pleased that they now recognise the importance of integrity to all their customers, especially vegetarians," she added.

Rennet is extracted from calves' stomachs and was to have been used in the ice cream versions of all Masterfoods' bars too.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6673549.stm]BBC News[/url][/quote]

I call that a win for common sense.

kudos to those who got the word out fast as the veg society does seem to have its act together.

MuslimSisLilSis — Sun, 20 May 2007 - 13:20

by making it non vegetarian

they'd be isolating a massive audience

the muslims, hindu's and the hardcore veggies

it'd be their own loss

so common sense stopped them from going ahead

tho im surprised they failed to see that in the first place

the importance of customers/consumers should be any buisness organisations primary concern

peacegirl — Sun, 20 May 2007 - 21:49

Updated: 06:30, Sunday May 20, 2007
Vegetarians have won their battle over the use of animal extracts in some of the country's favourite chocolate bars.
The manufacturer of Mars bars, Snickers, Maltesers and Galaxy has apologised to vegetarians after saying last week it was to change its ingredients.

More than 6,000 people complained about the move by Masterfoods and 40 MPs signed a petition.

Masterfoods had said it was changing the way it used some chocolate and ice cream from a vegetarian source to one with traces of rennet, an animal enzyme.

The Vegetarian Society protested on behalf of three million vegetarians in the UK and asked people to "express their concern" to Masterfoods.
Advertisement

Fiona Dawson, managing director of the Mars snack business in the UK, said: "The consumer is our boss and we had lots of feedback from consumers.

"It became very clear, very quickly that we had made a mistake, for which I am sorry.

"There are three million vegetarians in the UK and not only did we disappoint them but we upset a lot of the consumers.

""We have listened to their views and have decided to reverse our decision."

The company said it will begin changing its recipe back immediately for the best-selling four brands and at a later date for Minstrels.

malik — Mon, 21 May 2007 - 17:34

Kaafirs still wants us to eat remains of pigs which they have placed inside choclate during the past three weeks.
They make 550 000 choclates a day. People eat a lof of choclate every day even in Britain. That is over half a million bars.
so we can say that from 1 May to 20 May the producers have made Kaafirs 20 x 550 000 bars, = 11 000 000 bars of choclate.

we have to ask the question as to who is going to eat all those 11 million bars of choctale. I am sure Kaafirs are so greedy; so they are never going to simply throw 11 000 000 bars away, because that would be wasting millions of pounds in profit; so I think they are going to let a lot of choclates come on our shelves. they have decieved everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims vegitarians, and so we are not going to trust them again. I would rather eat American or Jewish choclates than those by Masterfoods or Cadbury.

Beast — Mon, 21 May 2007 - 18:30

[quote="malik"]Kaafirs still wants us to eat remains of pigs which they have placed inside choclate during the past three weeks.
...

they have decieved everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims vegitarians, and so we are not going to trust them again. I would rather eat American or Jewish choclates than those by Masterfoods or Cadbury.[/quote]

Why did you stop using the word kaafir in your last para?

It would have sounded more like what you normaly say:

[quote]they have decieved everyone, Muslims and kaafir vegitarians, and so we are not going to trust them again. I would rather eat kaafir or kaafir choclates than those by kaafir or kaafir.[/quote]

Ya'qub — Mon, 21 May 2007 - 18:48

[quote="ßeast"][quote="malik"]Kaafirs still wants us to eat remains of pigs which they have placed inside choclate during the past three weeks.
...

they have decieved everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims vegitarians, and so we are not going to trust them again. I would rather eat American or Jewish choclates than those by Masterfoods or Cadbury.[/quote]

Why did you stop using the word kaafir in your last para?

It would have sounded more like what you normaly say:

[quote]they have decieved everyone, Muslims and kaafir vegitarians, and so we are not going to trust them again. I would rather eat kaafir or kaafir choclates than those by kaafir or kaafir.[/quote][/quote]

lol!!

Angel — Mon, 21 May 2007 - 22:02

coz emotions got in the way therefore he wasnt thinking straight so cadburys was inc in the bad kafir list but then ALL kafirs are bad :roll: ....

Mr Honey's Day Out — Tue, 22 May 2007 - 10:08

[quote="malik"]remains of pigs[/quote]

The issue was the use of whey made using rennet from the lining of calves' stomachs. Nothing about pig.

(As it happens this traditional rennet is not cheaper and most manufacturers here find it less consistent and prefer not to use it. I imagine the cost saving was on account of sourcing whey from abroad.)

*DUST* — Thu, 24 May 2007 - 03:38

[quote="MuslimSisLilSis"]they'd be isolating a massive audience

the muslims, hindu's and the hardcore veggies[/quote]well, not all muslims - it didn't apply to hanafis, yet everyone equates the 'suitable for vegetarians' sign to the 'halaal' sign, and all the texts and emails i got were from hanafi muslims who just assumed this applied to them and were outraged by it.

what i want to know is: why are we so obsessed about food?!! i've seen this especially in the asian community, you can do some of the worst sins in public, you can be a drug dealer or drink alcohol, but as long as you don't eat pork or some other haraam meat, you're ok. :roll:

i know some of the people who sent those txts and emails were just genuinely concerned that their bro's and sis' may unknowingly eat something which they perceived to be haraam, but others were outraged and went on about how this was a 'backwards step' bla bla, for God's sake Muslims are dying across the world and we're concerned about the fact that we can no longer enjoy certain chocolates? it makes me so mad, we only need to question ourselves about the state we as an Ummah are in today. :evil:

Sajid Iqbal — Thu, 24 May 2007 - 23:27

so which chocolates are we not allowed to eat?

Snickers, Twix...????

cos the list linked in a previous post did not mention these....

pls confirm...as i havent really been following this development....

You — Thu, 24 May 2007 - 23:45

Stick to Cadburys for a short while I say. Timeout. There are a couple of others too.

Still gutted about KitKat and nestle though. It was me favourite chocolate - no matter how far they went to ruin it what with changing the packaging etc... but then hearing it is not suitable for veg?

malik — Fri, 25 May 2007 - 16:23

[b]Edit:[/b] not only did this post have nothing to do with the topic being discussed, it was also one of your numerous tirades against 'the Kaafirs'. from now onwards such aimless posts will be deleted. you have been warned.
[b]-The Moderate Mod.[/b]

Naz — Fri, 25 May 2007 - 23:15

im confused :?
Does that mean all the choc that they were gonna put animal rennet in they are now deciding not to? or is it just some choc they are turnng back into vegetarian?

i didnt realise it was a sin in islam to have gay blood. How do you know its gay blood? they dont label it "from gay person" 😃

Malik you have serious issues i think you need to see a councillor.

Imaani — Fri, 25 May 2007 - 23:45

I'm confused too. Everyone's saying different things...I thought hanafi's could eat the chocolates.

And what, we can't eat Nestle either? I love Milkybar.

*DUST* — Sat, 26 May 2007 - 02:53

[quote="Imaani"]I'm confused too. Everyone's saying different things...I thought hanafi's could eat the chocolates.[/quote] yep hanafis could eat the chocs either way - whether or not they were suitable for vegetarians, coz they'd still be halaal for us. but now that the decision to make them non-suitable for veggies has been overturned, the chocs are back to being halaal for people of other mazhahib too.

You — Sat, 26 May 2007 - 14:42

[quote="*DUST*"]yep hanafis could eat the chocs either way - whether or not they were suitable for vegetarians, coz they'd still be halaal for us.[/quote]

Are you sure?

I am avoiding them because well... I have not looked at the ruling, but from what was posted here, I thought it implied the animal has to be slaughtered at an absolute minimum.

Naz — Sat, 26 May 2007 - 23:33

i dont trust them anyway they say they goin back halal but who knows really. It took them long enough to inform us. Gone without chocolate for 2 weeks and im still goin strong lol. Just dont crave it anymore (wot is wrong with me lol)

Sajid Iqbal — Sun, 27 May 2007 - 11:38

[quote="*DUST*"][quote="Imaani"]I'm confused too. Everyone's saying different things...I thought hanafi's could eat the chocolates.[/quote] yep hanafis could eat the chocs either way - whether or not they were suitable for vegetarians, coz they'd still be halaal for us. but now that the decision to make them non-suitable for veggies has been overturned, the chocs are back to being halaal for people of other mazhahib too.[/quote]

pls elaborate what you mean pls...
why is it allowed for hanafis to eat the chocs if they apparently have animal rennet in them?

You — Mon, 28 May 2007 - 00:03

I asked someone today about this, and the answer was that what is made haraam in the qur'aan cannot be made halaal otherwise...

So more confusion...

Angel — Mon, 28 May 2007 - 00:10

[quote="Admin"]I asked someone today about this, and the answer was that what is made haraam in the qur'aan cannot be made halaal otherwise...

[/quote]

Unless matter of death....

I thought Imam Abu Hanifah (ra) gave this leniency if a person didnt have any other option? (In this case its not valid coz you can survive without chocs....gues need to wait for Dust to clarify)

Ya'qub — Mon, 28 May 2007 - 00:10

WE must all ALWAYS remember Imam Shaf'ii's pronouncement that if we come across a passage of the Qu'ran or a hadith that contradicts one of his rulings, we should follow IT instead of HIM. I assume this would apply to the other madhabs.

Anyway, on a different (tho slightly related matter), does anyone know the rulings on wearing fur? Presumably its ok but does the animal have to be slaughtered in a halaal way, or can we wear it even if the animal dies naturally (e.g. starvation, falling, or at the horns of another animal etc)? thanks for any feedback