Did you eat any bread today made with hair taken from dead Chinese people?

[rug]

Shocking Ingredient in Bread That’s Problematic for Jews and Muslims



Tinamarie Bernard November 22nd 2011

You may be eating a dead person’s hair in your commercially-baked bread. Watch out for L-cysteine if you’re queasy.

It’s name is inconspicuous enough, not something that would make the average consumer squirm as they read the ingredients label on a loaf of bread. The problem isn’t what L-cysteine does – it’s a non-essential amino acid used by many commercial bakers to condition the dough – but where it comes from: human hair. According to NaturalNews.com, much of it is from China, a country with a less than glowing track record for food contaminants.

According to the author, synthetic L-cysteine is sometimes used, while natural sources include human hair, chicken and duck feathers, cow horns and petroleum byproducts. “The hair is dissolved in acid and L-cysteine is isolated through a chemical process, then packaged and shipped off to commercial bread producers.”

Gag factor aside from the thought of eating dissolved hair, there are religious concerns for Jews and Muslims.

http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=53178&pageid=16&pagename=Opinion

Oh well, I'm already stuffed.

[Incitatus]

1. probably nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Ahhh..revealed: the upside to having celiac disease.

That makes me feel better.

[rug]

5. Hell, I'm neither Jewish nor Muslim and I'm concerned.

:wtf:

[Enthusiast]

18. They can put it in gluten-free products also.

I know. Sickening. Just a first move toward a Soylent Green future.

[Ian David]

3. L-cysteine

http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/108/t/000655.html

[NMMNG]

4. Not just Jews and Mulsims

According to Wikipedia, they now get 80% of L-cysteine from duck feathers. That's a no-no for vegetarians (like me) and vegans. There are plant sources such as red peppers, garlic, onions, broccoli, brussels sprout, oats, granola, wheat germ, and lentil. It can also be manufactured synthetically (at a higher price, of course). Naturally most manufacturers will go the cheap route.

Oy, another thing to watch for.

[rug]

6. It never ends.

[bananas]

21. A good reason to become vegan - none of those "mystery products" not listed on the label.

I'm a pesto-vegetarian, I eat fish cooked in pesto sauce.

[kestrel91316]

7. Hair does not equal l-cysteine any more than animal urine equals rainwater.

How do scaredy cats like you get through the day without having a nervous breakdown? Sheesh.

[rug]

10. Don't get me started on animal urine

or insect parts.

[idiotgardener]

14. What, you don't take Premarin or eat red dye or confectioner's glaze?

That's positively unamerican.

On a side note, a couple weeks ago I had to shop for foods for a sick dog who would not eat his dog food. It is remarkably difficult to find anything in the store without added salt, fat or mystery ingredients. Our food supply is crap.

[skepticscott]

15. Exactly

And if the wheat was grown in a field fertilized with manure, does the bread contain fecal material? If the carbon dioxide absorbed by the wheat was exhaled by a non-kosher/halal animal, does that also render it forbidden?

[kestrel91316]

26. I think a remedial education in basic biology and chemistry should be

mandatory for all Americans RIGHT EFFIN' NOW.

[bananas]

20. Brewer's yeast and egg whites are good sources for cysteine.

They also have lots of other good stuff at no extra charge.

[kestrel91316]

27. I for one am not afraid of l-cysteine that came from hair any more than I am

afraid of ketchup made from tomatoes grown using composted cattle manure.

[Gman]

8. So it's not hair

kind of a misleading article.

[Jamastiene]

12. It comes from hair.

There is a synthetic version but it is more expensive to make. So, while it is not hair, it comes from hair. Where I come from, if there is hair in the food, we leave that restaurant and never go back. Ick. :puke:

[HereSince1628]

9. Putting the L in soylent? n/t

[ZombieHorde]

11. Why should perfectly good human remains go uneaten

when there are so many hungry people in the world?

[Jamastiene]

13. Add this agnostic to the list.

I'm very concerned too. Yuck. :puke:

[Betsy Ross]

16. My doctor recommended that I take some probiotics

I went to the local health food store to purchase some. The sales person recommended "human-sourced" probiotics, from CADAVERS. Too creepy.

[rug]

17. Good grief!

I'm sticking with cigarettes.

[trotsky]

19. Ah yes, "according to naturalnews.com"...

that shining beacon in the world of accurate science and health reporting... :eyes:

[Silent3]

22. Dead head bread

If there are specific proven or likely health problems caused by L-cysteine (doesn't seem likely if it's just a basic amino acid), or with associated impurities introduced in its production, then maybe I'll worry.

If the only problem is some irrational "ick" factor regarding where the stuff comes from, why should anyone care?

Even a completely "all natural" food supply derives from a long chain of unsavory biological processes including all sorts of bodily secretions and excretions, mold, slime, dirt, decay and death.

[rug]

23. If it's esstablished these products come from humans, the obvvious question is

How did they get them?

Capitalism's ability to make a commodity of anything is virtually unlimited.

[Silent3]

25. I imagine a lot of human hair comes from barber shops...

...and hair salons. The last bit of hair on a human's head when he or she dies is probably the least abundant supply of the stuff.

If people were being slaughtered for their L-cysteine, I could see a valid moral objection to buying a product that rewards and perpetuates such slaughter. But that hardly seems likely.

[skepticscott]

24. Yes, and the same with kosher and halal

but the "theologians" have come up with all sorts of tortured arguments about why it doesn't matter past a certain point.

[struggle4progress]

28. ... Ten to 15 years ago human hair was a main source of L-cysteine ... Now L-cysteine comes mainly

from chicken and duck feathers, which can be collected in larger quantities than hair ...
Page last updated at 11:57 GMT, Thursday, 24 June 2010 12:57 UK
From food to fashion, the thriving market in human hair
By Denise Winterman
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8753698.stm