Jainism and Animal Issues 1997

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 18

Jainism and Animal Issues
SHOPPING FOR VEGETARIAN FOODS
Where to Shop
and don't be shy about asking store keepers how to prepare new or unfamiliar foods.
Reading Labels
Most vegetarian foods are available at regular grocery stores. In fact, with the increasing interest in vegetarian food, some stores have started to carry frozen vegetarian dinners and boxes with instant or quick vegetarian mcals. Some stores keep them in a special "gourmet," "health foods," or "international" section. Other stores mix these products into general sections. If you don't see a product, ask the store staff for help. If they don't have it, ask if they can carry it or at least order it on a trial basis (you may be turning them onto a popular new product!) Also, look in the yellow pages or ask around to find the health food or natural foods store in your area. Can't find the natural foods store? Call the Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) at 410-366-VEGE: they can probably help.
A trip to a natural foods stores - even once every month or two - can pay off because they typically have the biggest selection of vegetarian convenience foods. You can stock up on the canned, boxed and frozen items. Fantastic Foods, Casbah and Nile have entire lines of boxed instant and quick mcals including vegetarian chili, soups, falafel, hummus, and veggie burger mix. Cascadian Farms, Taj. Tamarind Tree, Amy's, Ken & Roberts, Cedar Lane, Ruthie's, Celentano's, Tumaro's, Rosarita's are only a few of those offering vegetarian frozen dinners.
Also, check out local ethnic food stores: Chinese stores may carry soy milk and tofu, and Indian or Chinese stores can have a variety of seasonings and fresh vegetables. Explore new ingredients
The food industry uses the most unthinkable ingredients sometimes, so it pays to read labels at first to find out which brands are truly vegetarian. Once you know your brands, you can relax a Little. (You'll marvel at how quickly your eyes recognize ingredients you're scanning for, once you are in the habit.) "Vegetable" soup often has chicken or beef broth; a few brands of veggie burgers use eggs and dairy; margarine sometime contains animal products and many egg-replacers contain eggs (who'd have thought?). Also, watch out for lard in beans (very common!) and breads which contain lard, tallow, animal shortening, eggs, or have egg wash glazing the top. Gelatin (an animal product) is found in Jell-o, marshmallows, and sometimes even in yogurt. Salad dressings can contain mayonnaise (made from eggs). Certain Snapple flavors, some fruit punches and candies, and some Indian pickles (achaar) contain Red Dye No. 40 ("Red 40", also called "cochineal extract" or "carminc"): this dye is made from insects!
On the positive side, more products are beginning to be labeled for vegetarians. The term, "ovo-lacto vegetarian" suggests that it contains eggs and/or dairy products; "lacto vegetarian" shows that it contains dairy products, but no eggs; "vegan" shows a product with no eggs or dairy products, and usually, no honey. Products labeled as vegan are "safe" for all vegetarians.
Cochineal Extract
I called up Snapple. Snapple produces three flavors with Cochincal Extract. It comes from boiling or chemically treating the shells of beetles (an insect). It is a brilliant red dye. The three flavors are Mango Madness, and the two new Island Splashes. Call up Snapple and ask them to use a fruit extract instead of an insect extract - 1-800-SNAPPLE.
According to Tropicana customer service, anytime natural flavors or colors are stated in their ingredients, it is a combination of the items listed above in the ingredients, and if cochincal extract is added, then they list it separately.
Dole also uses cochincal in "100% Natural Pine-Passion-Banana Juice," advertised as Paradise Fruits.
We live in a very complex world, where corporate logic can go in very weird directions. Snapple could have used some other synthetic colors, but they want to advertise a label of "natural." So they raise these beetles in a special farm! Call them to say that we need colors neither from laboratories, nor from insects.
I also called up Snapple, asking for natural fruit colors. The customer service representative at first argued with me, that the plants also have life. I countered him with questions, if the plants have eyes, ears, nose, tongue, etc. Finally he personally agreed, that the insects have no place in a bottle advertised as fruit juice.
We ourselves have to be extremely diligent. Let us not take anything that we don't know exactly what it is, and where it came from. Let us live simply, so that others may simply live.
Narendra Sheth
(14)
Jain Education Interational 2010_03