Jello???

[Coopdog]

I have a friend whose three daughters are vegetarians. They insist that Jello is OK now, because it's made with seaweed, not cow bones. This is news to me! Does anybody here have knowlege of this? Sounds fishy to me (sorry...I couldn't help myself).

[VoodooJoint]

If it's still marketed as Jello brand Gelatin then I'd say that it's pretty certain it still contains gelatin. Gelatin is made from animals by definition Gelatin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Other jelling agents that aren't made from animals are called other things -- like Pectin.

[guineapigluver1]

So some gelatin brands are okay?? My mom told me the same thing, about it not being made with cowbones anymore.

[VoodooJoint]

Originally Posted by guineapigluver1

So some gelatin brands are okay??

Anything called Gelatin, by definition, is made from animals. Gelatin is made up of collagen. Collagen comes from animals. If you are in doubt then call the company but I see no reason they would still call it gelatin, at the very least they would mention on the packaging that there were no animal products/byproducts in it.

There is no mention on the Jello website anywhere about it NOT being made from animals. In their history they note making it sugar free but they do not say anything about changing it's formula so that it no longer contained animal products JELL-O History - JELL-O Gelatin, Pudding, and No-Bake Desserts

[guineapigluver1]

Okay, thanks. I have had pudding but in the ingredients it didn't have any gelatin. I never realized how many things gelatin was in!

[Coopdog]

Thank you. That's what I thought.

[Jane_G]

I know this post is a few weeks old, but it got me thinking.

Jell-O brand is kosher, but what I didn't realize was that they use beef as their gelatin base. (I called them to ask) What really upsets me is that I keep a kosher home and I was under the impression that it was also pareve (meaning neither meat nor dairy). For years I have been serving my family Jell-O with whipped topping on it! That goes completely against Jewish dietary laws.

I went looking in my supermarket which has a pretty good kosher section and found Ko-Jell. They come in flavors, although not as many as the Jell-O brand, but at least I know that it's "safe" according to my dietary laws.

I wish companies would wake up and realize that decisions they make effect so many people in so many different ways.

[Toadies]

Jane, if you could find unflavored Ko-Jell, you could make it with juice or pureed fruit in any flavor that you wanted. A health food store may be a good source of vegetable based jelling agents (like seaweed).

[MoeJoe]

I don't think the seaweed part is true...I am veg and I avoid all types of JellO, just to be on the safe siide.

[Luvthempigs]

While Jell-o itself is made from animal products, there are gelatin like products made from seaweed. I've eaten some of them and they do taste pretty much like jello, and I'm not a vegetarian.

Often people still call it jello, kind of like people call tissues kleenex, not because they're actually using the brand name product. I wonder if that's the issue here.

[guineapigluver1]

Yup. There is something called agar agar that is made from seaweed that gels like gelatin and it works. You could make marshmallows and Jell-O and I think just about everything from it that you can with gelatin, although you need to decrease how much you use I believe.

[Cinnamon&Dandy]

I'm a vegetarian and I did some research and learned that anything with gelatin (or gelatine) is not vegetarian. Carageenan and agar agar (or just agar) are both vegetarian alternatives made from seaweed extract. At some Asian markets you can get jelly things made with agar that taste almost the same as jello.