[615] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: Pizza Hut's Ingredients
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ed Piekos)
Fri Jul 14 09:45:20 1995
To: emery@MIT.EDU (Elizabeth Emery)
Cc: vsg@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 14 Jul 1995 09:34:54."
<9507141304.AA05852@MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 09:42:11 EDT
From: Ed Piekos <espiekos@MIT.EDU>
Leah,
Thanks for pursuing this Pizza Hut rumor of beef in the sauce, but
I'm afraid that, if what you posted is all they sent you, they really
haven't resolved the issue. Note that the second ingredient in the
cheese flavor is 'Natural Flavors'. Unfortunately, that term is often
used as a a catch-bin for all kinds of ugly ingredients of animal
origin. The fact that it is the second item in a long list which is
ordered by weight (correct?) makes me especially curious.
I do note that the cheese flavor itself is not a major component
of the sauce (below even MSG), so many vegetarians would not lose too
much sleep over it. The fact that they're evidently being so evasive
is really starting to peeve me, however. This is a great example of
why it's so nice to go to entirely vegetarian restaraunts and avoid
packaged food; you don't have to question ingredients and deal with
vague and, sometimes, deliberately misleading answers (did you hear
about the man who filed suit, and won, against a restaraunt that put
anchovies in a marinara sauce they claimed was vegetarian?).
Fortunately, there are an increasing number of people, following all
kinds of dietary paradigms, who really want to know what they're
eating, perhaps spurring all of the recent labeling regulations. This
is a real boon for veggies.
Now that I think about it, I suppose Pizza Hut couldn't state
unequivocally in their letter that there are no animal by-products in
the sauce because there is almost certainly rennet (from calf
stomachs) in one or more of the cheeses. I am still *very* curious
what's hiding behind the 'Natural Flavors' curtain, though.
Thanks again for looking into this,
<<ESP>>
