Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Did you know that if a product has "flavors" listed on the label that it may include meat? If not, read on.

Your servant,
Krishna-kripa das

Nov 2003
From: Supriya Kelkar
Reply-To: skelkar@umich.edu
Subject: meat in flavors

To whom it may concern:

I'm writing to inform you about a salient but well-hidden health issue that I think ISKCON would find very informative. I came across the subject when I was eating a store-bought item that had a very "meaty" taste to it. A strict vegetarian, I immediately checked the ingredients to make sure I hadn't made a mistake in my purchase. There was no meat listed under the ingredients, but there was a listing that I had always found very mysterious: "flavors."

I called the company, and was told that there was meat in the product. I asked why the meat wasn't listed in the ingredients. The company representative informed me that meat is often placed under the label "flavors," "natural flavors," or "artificial flavors," (an artificial flavor generally still has natural products in it, as only a certain percentage of it is artificial). I asked how this was possible. She told me that it was completely legal, and in checking with the FDA and other sources, it is. As long as the product being masked under "natural/artificial flavors" is not a common allergen, the company does not have to disclose that it is in the food item.

I began to call other leading food companies only to find that a great majority of them including Lipton, Prego (which does not make a single vegetarian pasta sauce), and Campbell's (the parent company of Prego, itself making only two vegetarian soups out of its numerous lines of soup), have meat products under their "flavors." Most of the companies responded indifferently. They did not seem to find it a problem that they were misleading millions of American consumers on a daily basis as long as they followed FDA guidelines. Still others, like Kraft, replied that they do not even keep track of what's in their "flavors" because they change so often.

As a representative of a socially conscious organization, I wanted to inform you of the issue, in hopes that you will be able to spread the word. Please feel free to contact me for responses from the companies and any other questions. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Supriya Kelkar
skelkar@umich.edu

© dipika.org November 20, 2003