Comments on: Jello Made From Humans Is Not As Weird As It Sounds

By: Susan Ballarini

Susan Ballarini — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:19:20 +0000

…and where do they get this human protein? Are donors alive or dead? Willing or unwilling?

By: Susan Ballarini

Susan Ballarini — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:01:12 +0000

This is a very bad idea, and I am relatively sure it is not for our “good.” Mad cow disease was ceated by feeding cows cow proteins. This will happen to us, and who is to say that human virus DNA will not be inserted on purpose or accidentally. This is not progress, it is a step toward soylent green fate. Oh well, they have made food from shit, too. We are at the mercy of the mad scientists and the government regarding what we eat as we will soon not be allowed to grow anything at all. Why don’t people just stop having so many babies; then the government would stop trying to exterminate us.

By: fuzz bob

fuzz bob — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:15:26 +0000

interesting how many commentors didn’t read the article.

By: vickie98531

vickie98531 — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:42:47 +0000

Thank you MacLir, for that bit of info. My daughter is vegetarian but unfortunately didn’t become aware of gelatins (for Jello) origins for many years after her switch.

Just so the others reading this post know, all forms of carragheenans are vegan. Its derived from seaweeds! Good to eat and good for us – or at least it was before they began the processing of it.

By: MacLir

MacLir — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:34:58 +0000

Agar isn’t gelatin, per se.

Gelatin, as discussed, is a gelled colloid of cross-linked protein strands holding water (and whatever else).

Agar is also a colloid, but the active ingredient is a long-chain polysaccharide (polymer of sugar units). Other examples are the carragheenan in ice cream and chocolate milk, which is shorter chains and stays mainly soluble in cold liquids providing a thickener, and cellulose, which is super long chains and is insoluble in water. Agar is soluble in hot water and gels in cold – you can extract it in crude form by boiling any of a number of marine seaweeds.

Gelatin also has a mainly linear response to heat, the warmer the gel, the softer; whereas agar has a hysteresis curve – it stays solid until hot, then melts, and stays liquid until it cools, then gels.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:34:29 +0000

So are vegans going to be allowed to eat this now?

By: Gordo

Gordo — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:42:57 +0000

While this story, and reader reactions to it, are sensationalizing the process, what is under-emphasized is the importance of collagen in medical applications. In many instances, absorbable sutures are required during surgery. For many years, the collagen used in the production of absorbable sutures has been derived from slaughterhouse byproduct.

Oh, and about that sausage? Many (most?) sausage casings have for years also been manufactured using byproduct-derived collagen.

By: mrbadhabits

mrbadhabits — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:54:26 +0000

grossed out by the relevation that gelatin is made by rendering bones, cartilage, and other meat processing wastes? there’s so much more than that – and you don’t really want to know.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:08:31 +0000

This is why I never ask how they make the sausage.

By: Hefsmaster

Hefsmaster — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:36:15 +0000

Fact of the matter is people are actually buying into this crap. When mankind is eating it’s own literally, no matter what form you put it in. Reconstituted crap burgers or jello… It proves that most people would fail a basic george benard shaw test… This is all a part of the global warming/climate change?, agenda 21, rural council development, Iron Mountain Report, knock out every bird with one stone. SS, medicare,medicaid,the debt, the enemy, and YOU… To understand the slippery slope of justification should leave you with the question of “why do they want me to eat my own”?

By: Sinister Duck

Sinister Duck — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:18:02 +0000

I’d eat it. And I’m a picky eater.

By: Gordon R

Gordon R — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:02:54 +0000

Greetings,

A fine step towards Soylent Green! Well done!

By: Angelia Sparrow

Angelia Sparrow — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:22:04 +0000

Carol, boiling down the carcasses has been done from earliest times, to maximize use of an animal. The good cuts of meat were eaten or preserved, the hide was tanned, the organs were utilized in pies, the bones boiled down to get the remaining scraps of meat and some broth (long bones were often used after this to make things as well, combs, brushes, hairpins, decorative carvings.) The broth would gel up and make a meal on its own.

One of the earliest recipes for gelatin, or aspic, dates to 1375.

And coryy, I can never get agar to set up right.

By: coryy

coryy — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 15:17:10 +0000

How does this production of meat based gelatin desserts relate to agar based gelatin desserts?
Are the collagen strands any more uniform or less uniform in an agar based gel? Or is the gelling mechanism involved in an agar based gelatin different from an animal based one? Why are we still using animal products to make gelatin when agar agar is available? Not from a vegetarian perspective, but from a “seems like using agar agar would be much less effort than animal by-product processing” perspective.
Any ideas?

By: Durant S.

Durant S. — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 15:03:30 +0000

A new use for human cadavers ! A third choice for the families of the deceased; i.e., burial, cremation or now: gelatin !

By: John Lerch

John Lerch — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:22:46 +0000

Yeast isn’t a plant; but how is putting it into a plant better than putting it into yeast?

By: plutosdad

plutosdad — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:00:01 +0000

You really needed to use a picture of lime jello for this :)

By: Shana

Shana — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 01:31:09 +0000

I’m definitely never eating jello again!

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:48:15 +0000

Hmm. Soylent Green dessert (Is that lime? Uh, not quite….)

However, I think this would make it even less popular in hospitals, if that’s possible.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:54:25 +0000

This seems like it would be too expensive for culinary purposes. Perhaps the gene could be added to a plant?

By: amphiox

amphiox — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:35:06 +0000

The animal parts used to make gelatin are byproducts left over from other butchery processes, so no additional animal suffering is entailed by its manufacture. Those materials are generated whether or use them to make gelatin or not, and if you don’t use them, they are simply thrown away.

By: Zara Khan

Zara Khan — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:55:28 +0000

When I first read the article’s title, I was like,”awe-coooool!”
Guess, watching too much of ‘Dexter’ does that to you, haha.

By: Kushal

Kushal — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:11:12 +0000

This is synonymous to how they manufacture human insulin. Insert the gene into a bacteria to have it manufacture the protein for you, no big deal as far as being grossed out.

By: Carol

Carol — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:43:29 +0000

Who ever thought of grinding and boiling poor animals in geletin? Gross anyway.
So human gelatin is no different and would be kinder, as no animals would be used!

By: Carol Satterfield

Carol Satterfield — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:30:54 +0000

At first I was disgusted–thinking human flesh material was used. Now that I understand it is made with a gene of collagen that is replicated outside a human body and made into jello, I think it’s a great idea. This food should be much more useful to the human body.